The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to allow the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to inspect electoral materials used for the conduct of the just concluded presidential election held on 25 February 2023.
The Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on 1st March declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the presidential election after he polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his close rivals Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Tinubi's lawyer, Barrister Akintola Makinde, prayed the appellate court to grant him leave “to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials” to enable him prepare his defence against Atiku and Mr. Obi’s challenge at the tribunal.
Makinda said, "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.”
During the ruling on Wednesday 8th March 2023. Justice Joseph Ikyegh said “after reading the applicants motion exparte, I am satisfied that there is substance in the application. I accordingly grant him leave to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials.”