CITIZENS COMPASS– THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to wave the order granted to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) to inspect materials used for the the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
PDP and Labour parties which rejected the results of the presidential elections had approached the court and secured an order to inspect the election materials.
The order was granted on Friday, March 4, 2023.
INEC, in a motion on notice filed same day, had prayed the court to vary the order which restrained it from tampering with materials used for the election.
The commission’s major reason was that it needed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) for the upcoming gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023.
Recall that INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu had declared the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) the president-elect if the February 25, 2023 elections.
INEC also said the presidential candidate of PDP came second while the Labour Party Presidential candidate came third after collating the results.
However, both PDP and Labour Party had walked out of INEC Collation Center in Abuja citing irregularities in the collation process and requested that the Commission discontinue announcement of results but APC sought an injunction restraining INEC from discontinuing the announcement of results.
On the eve of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, INEC declared APC the winner of the election and fixed 3pm of same day for presentation of Certificate of Return for the winner.
The declaration of results has been generating mixed reaction from members of the public.
However, many APC supporters said it is a welcome development.
