The Independent National Electoral Commission’s request to modify the instructions it previously gave to the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively, to review election materials used during the presidential election was denied by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday.
In its Friday decision allowing Atiku and Obi access to the sensitive materials used in the conduct of the poll on February 25, the court imposed a restraining order.
Both Atiku and Obi were given permission to contest the election results, which they claimed were tainted by fraud and other issues.
The All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared the winner of the poll by INEC on March 1. Nevertheless, the PDP and the LP candidates are appealing the results.
They subsequently submitted separate ex parte papers, pleading for permission to inspect private information used by INEC to conduct the presidential election.
However, INEC requested a modification to the court’s order prohibiting it from tampering with election-related materials in a motion on the notice it submitted on March 4.
For the next elections, which will take place on Saturday, the commission stated that the BVAS needs to be reconfigured.
But, the court ruled on Wednesday that the application was pointless because Atiku, Obi, and their parties were never given authorization to access and scientifically examine the INEC database, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices.
The panel ruled that none of the applicants had been given permission to access INEC’s database, which would have revealed voter identities and voting preferences, as was being worried by INEC.
