Court of Appeal grants Atiku and Obi permission to inspect Inec's election documents

FORMER vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ex-Anambra State governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party have been given the go-ahead by Nigeria's Court of Appeal to inspect elections documents used last Saturday.

Nigerians went to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president and in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner. Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Inec chairman who served as the returning officer for the election, declared Asiwaju Tinubu the winner with 8,794,726  votes, defeating his nearest opponent, former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who came second with 6,984,520 votes.

Among the main frontrunners in the elections were Asiwaju Tinubu, Alhaji Abubakar, former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and Governor Obi. In what became a three-horse race, Governor Obi was the surprise package of the elections as his Labour Party coming from nowhere to win 12 states.

However, the PDP and Labour Party have refused to accept the results, taking to the courts to challenge the APCs victory. Earlier today, the Court of Appeal  granted them leave to inspect documents used by Inec for the conduct of the presidential elections after both parties filed two separate ex-parte applications.

Both Alhaji Abubakar and Governor Obi are alleging substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 in addition to violence and rigging, which they claimed marred the conduct and outcome of the election. They approached the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, for permission to inspect the materials used by INEC in the conduct of the election and have been granted permission to do so.