By Gbenga Ariyibi
Ado Ekiti—The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti, yesterday granted the prayers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, to allow the party inspect all the electoral materials used for the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.
The tribunal had last week granted similar prayers of the All Progressives Congress, APC, by INEC to allow the party to inspect the materials in its custody.
APC is contesting the declaration of Fayose as the winner of the governorship poll, alleging that the election was rigged.
However, the PDP had in its ex-parte motion dated 25th July, 2014, deposed to by its counsel, Kolapo Kolade, and brought in pursuant to Section 151 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, sought the relief of the Tribunal for the inspection of all materials used for the election.
Other reliefs sought by PDP include: an order allowing other interested party to enjoy same privilege, an order compelling security agencies to be present at the point of inspection and an order allowing the 1st respondent (Mr Fayose) to be in possession of Certified True Copies (CTC) of all electoral materials and scan same .
According to PDP, ”in order to defend our position, we need to inspect the materials and we need the leave of the Court to do so”.
In his ruling, chairman of the panel, Justice Mohammad Sirajo granted the prayers of PDP to inspect the materials and for other interested party to enjoy same, just as he directed that the INEC must allow the party access to CTC and get same in other forms.
However, Justice Sirajo declined the leave directing the security agencies to be present during the inspection, saying “such order is not within the purview of this tribunal since it is the duty of INEC to provide same during such exercise. So no order of tribunal is needed for this”
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