The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to challenge, at the Supreme Court, the dismissal of their application to be granted access to inspect the central server allegedly used by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to transmit results of the last general election.
Recall that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had earlier ruled in a unanimous decision that the request could not be granted since the issue of whether such central server existed or not, is already a subject of controversy in the substantive petition that is challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.
Reacting to the Tribunal’s ruling, a senior member of the Atiku and PDP’s legal team, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, told Journalists: “The nation was looking forward to this ruling and it is one that is very pivotal to this matter.
“The Electoral Act itself empowers the tribunal to grant access such as this to the petitioners in order to institute and maintain a petition, and that is what we are asking for.
“Somehow, at this stage, the court has ruled. But definitely this is a matter we want to take higher to the Supreme Court to challenge this ruling because we strongly feel that section 151 of the Electoral Act entitles us to have access to these materials.”
On its part, INEC, through its lawyer, Mr. Usman Uztaz, SAN, said it was satisfied with the ruling.
“These are issues to be tried during the hearing, you cannot try them in piecemeal”, INEC’s lawyer told newsmen.
