Court approves PDP’s request to inspect election materials in Bauchi
The Governorship, National and State House of Assembly Election Tribunal, sitting in Bauchi State has on Saturday granted leave to Garba Dahiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to access sensitive materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Feb. 25 NASS election in the state.
Dahiru contested and lost the Bauchi South Senatorial District election to Shehu Umar of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as declared by INEC.
A three-member panel, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, gave the order in Bauchi, following an ex-parte application filed by the candidate and his party.
READ ALSO: INEC asks Appeal Court to halt inspection of election materials
Those involved in the matter are Shehu Umar and his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as well as INEC.
Earlier, the Lead Counsel to the applicant, Alex Hassan, had prayed to the court to compel INEC to allow his client to obtain documents in the Commission’s custody used for the election.
He said the documents would aid his petition against the emergence of APC’s Umar as the winner of the election.
In his ruling, Kpochi said that the application had merit and was granted accordingly.
He, therefore, ordered INEC to make available all the election materials used for the conduct of the Bauchi South Senatorial District election to the applicant, his agents and counsel.
Recently, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) threatened to sue PDP for libellous allegations against it and its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
READ ALSO: INEC threatens to sue PDP for accusing Prof. Mahmood of election rigging
Neptune Prime reports that the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, in the warning issued on Friday night in Abuja said legal action would be taken against PDP for accusing Prof. Yakubu of rigging the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections and that the INEC boss is also planning to rig the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections starting with the re-configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
