The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will today file an appeal at the Supreme Court against the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which dismissed their application of access to inspect the central server allegedly used to transmit results of the last general election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Starnews reports on Monday that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had ruled in a unanimous decision that the request by Atiku and PDP could not be granted since the issue of whether such central server existed or not, is already a subject of controversy in the substantive petition that is challenging the victory of President Muhammadu in the last presidential election conducted in Nigeria.
“The nation was looking forward to this ruling and it is one that is very pivotal to this matter.
“The Electoral Act itself empowers the tribunal to grant access such as this to the petitioners in order to institute and maintain a petition, and that is what we are asking for.
“Somehow, at this stage, the court has ruled. But definitely this is a matter we want to take higher to the Supreme Court to challenge this ruling because we strongly feel that section 151 of the Electoral Act entitles us to have access to these materials;” a senior member of the Atiku and PDP’s legal team, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, told Journalists yesterday immediately after the ruling by the Tribunal.
INEC, through its lawyer, Mr. Usman Uztaz, SAN, said it was satisfied with the ruling.
“These are issues to be tried during the hearing, you cannot try them in piecemeal”, INEC’s lawyer told newsmen.
One of the lawyers in Atiku’s camp hinted Starnews that an appeal would be filed today against the ruling of the tribunal at the Supreme Court. According to him, majority of the lawyers were busy all throughout the night to look into the Tribunal’s ruling and its implications on the substantive suit and had resolved to appeal the ruling immediately since the Supreme Court has the final say on all cases.
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