…APC denies plan to block court action
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in the February 23 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, filed an application seeking an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it to inspect materials used for the conduct of the poll.
The petitioners, through their lawyers, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), filed the ex parte application before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal located on the premises of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.
They are through their application seeking the tribunal’s order seeking the court’s order granting them permission to inspect the Voters Registers, the Smart Card Reader Machines, ballot papers and other documents used for the conduct of the poll.
Inspection of election materials usually precedes the filing of an election petition.
INEC, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, were joined as the first to the third respondents in the motion filed by PDP and Atiku.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign has denied lobbying international community to persuade the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, not to challenge the Fecruary 23 elections in court.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director of Strategic Communications, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, APC said an unauthorised group wrote a letter to international bodies and not Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation.
“Our attention has as been drawn to some news item and posts on social media reporting that we wrote a letter to some international bodies to prevail on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar not to proceed to court to challenge the result of the 2019 Presidential Election.
“Our investigation reveals that a letter to that effect was purportedly written by a certain ‘Buhari Campaign Organisation’. This is the second time we will be informing the public that the said ‘Buhari Campaign Organisation’ does not act at the behest of the APC Presidential Campaign Council nor does it represent the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation in any way. As a result, whatever it has released does not represent the position of the APC Presidential Campaign Council or President Muhammadu Buhari,” it said.
Keyamo said the official position of the campaign council was that that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had constitutional right to seek redress in court, adding it will not do anything to curtail that right.
“In fact, it is the resort to court that is the only democratic way to ventilate his perceived grievance and any attempt to restrict or discourage the exercise of such right would be an invitation to anarchy.
“In addition, we are very anxious to meet Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in court in order to show the world in a conclusive manner the free and fair nature of the comprehensive defeat of Atiku at the polls. An election is not termed ‘rigged’ only by the mere claim of it by the loser. That is what Atiku and the PDP want to ram down our throats. Unfortunately for them, international, continental and sub-regional observers (who can be seen as neutral by all standards) All declared it to be free, fair and credible. No ego-massaging narrative can change that.
“We therefore totally disassociate ourselves from the letter purportedly written by one of, perhaps, many support groups of President Muhammadu Buhari. They may have a right to their opinion, but it does not represent our official position,” he said.
