The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Monday, dismissed an application the People’s Democratic Party PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, filed to be granted access to inspect the central server they said was used by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, to transmit results of the February 23 presidential election.
The tribunal, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of Justices, said the request 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 President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.
It stressed that the fact that all the parties to the petition have joined issues on whether or not, the said server was used for the collation and transmission of results of the election, granting the joint application by PDP and Atiku, would amount to delving into the main case.
According to the tribunal, allowing the application would amount to prejudging of fundamental issues already raised by the parties on the substantive matter.