Atiku withdraws court application against INEC

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has withdrawn his application over the sorting of the electoral materials he would need to prepare a petition he intends to lodge against the outcome of the February 25 election.

it was gathered that Atiku’s decision to discontinue the fresh application comes after a meeting with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the headquarters of the commission in Abuja on Tuesday.

This newspaper understands that at the meeting, INEC promised to allow PDP agents to observe the process of sorting out some of the electoral materials the opposition party requested for, especially the ballot papers.

“We filed the application owing to challenges and administrative bottlenecks we encountered at the INEC office when we went for access to the election materials as ordered by the court.

“However, before the application dated March 13 could be slated for hearing, INEC, on its own, called our legal team for a meeting.

“It was at that meeting which held yesterday (Tuesday) that all the grey areas were sorted out, with INEC, pledging to allow our agents to observe the process of sorting out some of the electoral materials we requested for, especially the ballot papers.

“Since that was primarily our prayer in the fresh application we filed, we felt that it would not be necessary to proceed with the hearing.

“So, to save judicial time, we filed a notice of discontinuance which was accordingly granted”, Vanguard quotes a member of Atiku’s legal team as saying.

Consequently, following the withdrawal of the application, Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led three-member panel of the Court of Appeal struck it out.