The Governorship, National, and State House of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Bauchi has granted leave to the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Sadique Abubakar, in the March 18 governorship election, to access sensitive materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The APC candidate is contesting the result of the election which he lost to his main rival, Bala Mohammed, the incumbent governor.
Mohammed got 525,280 votes to defeat Abubakar who got 432,272 votes.
Consequently, a two-member panel, led by Justice F.N Azinge, gave the order yesterday after it heard an ex parte application filed by Abubakar and his party, the APC.
Cited as respondents in the matter were INEC, the Governor-Elect, Bala Mohammed as well as his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
In her ruling, Azinge said the application had merit and was granted accordingly.
She, therefore, ordered INEC to make available all the election materials used for the conduct of the election to the applicant, his agents, and counsel.
“The petitioners are to take certified copies and conduct a manual and physical inspection of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the Bauchi governorship election held on the 18th March 2023,” he said.
Earlier, Rilwan Jibrin, holding the brief for Ishaq Magaji SAN, the lead counsel to the applicant, prayed the court to compel INEC to allow his client to obtain documents in the Commission’s custody used for the election.
He said the documents would aid his petition against the emergence of PDP’s Mohammed as the winner of the election