Atiku, Obi raise alarm, demand immediate access to electoral materials

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have demanded compliance with the orders granting them access to inspect materials used for the February 25 presidential election.

A letter to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu by the PDP Legal team signed by Joe-Kyari

Gadzama, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) yesterday stated that since the Court of Appeal on March 3 and 8 granted it access to materials used for the election, the commission refused to comply.

The appellate court panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had issued “an order allowing the PDP to carry out a forensic examination/ analysis of the ballot papers, data form, BVAS/and or card readers, including copying and photocopying of the ballot papers, information stored in the computer server/IReV/backends/clouds and card readers and thumbprint analysis and to present and/or demonstrate by visual, electronic or documentary or any other means, the result of the forensic examination/analysis at the court as part of the proceedings.”

But Gadzama said the legal team led by Adedamola Fanokun had been visiting INEC since the first order was made, and on each occasion, they were turned back because “there was no instruction yet from the commission on the court order.”

Similarly, the national chairman of the LP, Julius Abure, in a twitter post, bemoaned the failure of INEC to grant the party’s experts and lawyers access to the election materials and to scan or make photocopies of voters registration, ballot papers used, including to conduct a digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the February 25 elections.