Presidential Election: Atiku, PDP Withdraw Motions After Being Granted Access To Electoral Materials

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have withdrawn a fresh application they filed to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow their agents to participate in the process of sorting out ballot papers that were used for the presidential election that held on February 25.

Both PDP and Atiku, who are separately challenging the outcome of the election, told the Presidential Election Petition Court that they were no longer interested in the application and have filed a notice of discontinuance.

“It has become pertinent to make some clarifications following insinuations and mischievous reporting of the withdrawal of the application for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant access to the legal team of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and the PDP on the inspection of the documents related to the February 25 presidential election,” Atiku’s media aide Paul Ibe said in a statement Wednesday.

The Court of Appeal had granted the request of Atiku and the PDP to be given unfettered access to the INEC documents used for the presidential election.

He said they filed the application owing to challenges and administrative bottlenecks they encountered at the INEC office when they went for access to the election materials as ordered by the court.

He said there was a need for his agents to observe and participate in the sorting of materials he requested in all the offices of INEC nationwide, in line with the ex-parte order the court made on March 3.

Atiku argued that allowing the agents of his party to be on the ground while the materials are sorted out, would ensure transparency in the process and guarantee that the ballot papers would not be tampered with.