THE Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in Abuja has turned down the application by the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party for the inspection of the server and data of smart card reader used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the February 23, 2019 presidential election. Presiding Justice of the five-member panel, Justice Mohammed Garba, said allowing such application at this stage in the matter will prejudice the substantive petition. ALSO READ:Atiku and his party had, through one of their lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) said the request for the inspection of INEC server is essential to their petition challenging the return of President Muhammadu Buhari at the election. The petitioners had in their petition stated that by figures obtained from INEC’s server, they and not Buhari and the third respondent, All Progressives Congress (APC) won the presidential election held on February 23 this year. Meanwhile, Uche said the petitioners will appeal the decision of the tribunal, which dismissed their application seeking to inspect INEC server, saying that Section 151 of the electoral act allows them to inspect the materials INEC used for the election.

Source: Nigerian Tribune June 24, 2019 12:00 UTC