The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to order the Independent National Electoral Commission to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.
Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr 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.
While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC.
According to Makinde, “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.”
The appellate court sitting as the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal will on Wednesday rule on Tinubu’s application.
