7th March, 2023
Nigeria’s president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has hit the Appeal Court in Abuja to seek permission from the court to access the electoral materials used in the just concluded presidential election.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP had already obtained permission from the Appeal Court to access the electoral materials and they have been given the access to do so.
But Tinubu had gone to the court through his lawyer, Akintola Makinde to be granted access to inspect the electoral materials to be prepared for his defence against Obi and Atiku.
The lawyer is also seeking permission of the court to make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to be used for his defence.
The Punch quoted Makinde as saying that “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 Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last Wednesday declared Tinubu winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election in Nigeria.
In the declared result, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Atiku scored 6,984,520 votes to come second, while Obi came third, garnering 6,101,533 votes to come third.
Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1,496,687 votes to come fourth in the presidential election.
The APC’s presidential candidate won in 12 States, while Atiku won 12 States, just as Obi won in 11 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Kwankwaso won in one State.