Election Petition: Why I withdrew my motion on material inspection — Atiku

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar has said he withdrew a motion before the Appeal Court over a request to inspect electoral materials because the issue had been overtaken by events.

In a statement, Abubakar said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had already granted him access to inspect the material hence his withdrawal of the motion.

He said the clarification was important following insinuations and mischievous reporting of the withdrawal of the application for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant access to his legal team and the PDP on the inspection of the documents related to the Feb. 25 Presidential Election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the appellate court had granted the request of PDP and Abubakar to be granted unfettered access to the INEC documents used for the presidential election.

“On March 10, 2023, we filed a motion (number 12M) ex parte and affidavit of urgency to ensure the implementation of the court order.

“The court, however, asked that we put the president-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the INEC on notice.

“Consequently, we filed a motion on notice (number 13M) and motion ex parte (number 13MA) for substituted service on Tinubu,” he said.

NAN reports that on Tuesday at a conference meeting between lawyers of the PDP,  LP,  APC, and INEC, access was eventually granted to the legal team of PDP by INEC,” he said.

Abubakar said when the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the legal team withdrew the two motions.

He said the motions were withdrawn because access had already been granted on Tuesday to Abubakar and PDP.