The Supreme Court of Nigeria has declined to grant an application filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, seeking access to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The five man panel presided over by Justice Dattijo Muhammad in a unanimously judgment, dismissed the appeal, on grounds that there was no basis to interfere with the earlier decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal rejecting the appellants’ request to access the said server.
Reading the lead judgment on Tuesday, Justice Centus Nweze held that the appellants failed to establish that the tribunal wrongfully exercised its discretion in dismissing their request.
The Supreme court also held that the parties failed to place sufficient materials before the apex court to show that the tribunal’s exercise of its discretion was either arbitrary or illegal adding that the allegation by the appellants that they were denied fair hearing by the June 24, 2019 ruling of the tribunal was unsubstantiated.
Atiku and PDP in their petition pending before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal alleged that the “authentic” results of the February 23, 2019 election, which gave them victory, were stored in the said INEC server.
DailyTimes
