….as tribunal okays stand-down to deliver a ruling
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday, adduced reasons why he applied for an order to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to surrender all the materials used for the February 23 presidential election, for inspection.
He said the request was to establish that the exercise was fraught with manifest irregularities, including multiple thumb-printing of ballot papers, saying he intends to engage forensic experts to analyse the election materials.
Consequently, he prayed the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, for leave to be allowed to obtain some of the sensitive materials that INEC deployed for the presidential election. Meantime, the tribunal, stood-down its proceedings for one hour to enable it to consider the merit or otherwise of the request.