In court on Tuesday, Tinubu, through his lawyer, Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.
By Emma Ogbuehi
In preparation for what, no doubt, will be a titanic legal battle to defend his election victory as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect, is seeking an order from the Court of Appeal to access sensitive materials used by INEC for the conduct of the presidential election.
According to the result declared by INEC in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 8,794,726 votes, to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), who secured 6,101,533 votes.
Consequently, INEC declared Tinubu winner of the February 25 poll and president-elect.
But the election has since been mired in controversy with many local and international observers saying that it is lacking in credibility.
In court on Tuesday, Tinubu, through his lawyer, Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.
READ ALSO: INEC to seek court permission to reconfigure BVAS ahead of gov poll
“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Makinde said.
In the first ex parte application, the Labour Party and Obi, its presidential candidate, and INEC are the respondents.
In the second application, the PDP, and its candidate, Abubakar, are cited as respondents, alongside INEC.
The appellate court presided over by a three-member panel has fixed a ruling for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the two main opposition parties on Friday, secured leave of the court to have access to all the sensitive materials used by the INEC in the conduct of the election.
The Court of Appeal serves as the tribunal for hearing the presidential election dispute.
