SUNRISE– A three-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja on Wednesday granted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar access to all electoral materials in the presidential elections.
The panel heard the ex-parte motion filed by the PDP and Abubakar, seeking an order granting them access to inspect the electoral materials used for the February 23 polls.
Atiku filed an ex-parte motion at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, asking for various orders of the court to allow him to access all documents used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the presidential election.
The ex-parte motion prayed for an order compelling INEC to allow them to inspect the register and other vital documents used in the conduct of the election unhindered.
In delivering its ruling, the panel ordered INEC to allow the appellant access to all electoral material to enable the applicant file and maintain an electoral petition.
However, the court refused prayers 3 to 5 which sought for scanning and forensic audit, stating that a forensic audit did not fall under the terms envisaged by section 151 of the electoral act.
The panel led by Justice Abdul Aboki agreed unanimously to the ruling, hence, the motion was granted in part.
Other members of the panel include Justices Peter Ige and Emmanuel Agim, Channels Tv reports.
