Tribunal grants Bauchi APC guber candidate leave to inspect election materials

The Bauchi State Governorship, National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting in Bauchi, on Thursday, granted leave to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its gubernatorial candidate in the March 18 election, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (retd) to inspect sensitive materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the governorship election in the state.

Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the governorship election in the state by INEC on March 20, polling 525,280 against the 432,272 votes garnered by the APC candidate.

Not satisfied with the outcome, the party and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge the result, joining Governor Mohammed, PDP and INEC as respondents.

Ruling on an ex-parte application brought before the panel by the APC and Abubakar, the tribunal, led by Justice FN Azinge, held that the application had merit and was granted accordingly.

The tribunal further ordered INEC to make available all the election materials used in the conduct of the governorship election to the applicants, their agents and counsel.

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“The petitioners are to take certified copies and conduct manual and physical inspection of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the Bauchi governorship election held on the 18th March, 2023,” Justice Azinge ruled.

Earlier, Barrister Rilwan Jibrin, who held the brief for Ishaq Magaji, SAN, the lead counsel for the applicants, prayed the court to compel INEC to allow his client to obtain documents in its custody used for the election, saying they would aid the applicants’ petition.