The Independent National Electoral Commission has approached the Presidential Election Petition Court to vary the orders it granted to the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, to inspect materials used for the last presidential election.
INEC, in a motion on notice filed on March 4, urged court to vary the order which restrained it from tampering with materials used for the election.
The commission claimed that it needed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for the next round of elections.
According to INEC, without a prompt variation of the inspection order granted to Obi and Atiku, especially the aspect restraining it from tampering with formation contained in the BVAS, it would be difficult for it to proceed with the governorship and state assembly elections, scheduled for Saturday across the country.
A three-member panel of the court, last Friday, had granted Obi and Atiku access to all the sensitive materials the INEC deployed for the conduct of the presidential election that held on February 25.
The panel, led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the orders after it heard two separate ex-parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.
Both applications were predicated on Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
INEC and the purported winner of the Presidential Election, Bola Tinubu of the APC were respondents.
The applicants persuaded the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents in its custody that were used for the presidential election.
According to them, the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential election.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY 