Atiku to tribunal: INEC yet to give us vital documents after collecting N6.69m

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of clogging the wheel of progress in the prosecution of his petition against the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Atiku told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja on Wednesday that inspite of paying N6.69 million to INEC for certified true copies of documents he intends to tender in evidence, the commission failed to make the documents available.

Speaking through his lawyer, Chris Uche, SAN, the former Vice President said it was discouraging for the electoral umpire to say that some of the documents they paid for were outside Abuja.

“We thought all these documents will be made available to us and we won’t have to go to the states to collect,” he added.

Uche then proceeded to tender certified true copies of documents for 10 out of 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State which were the only documents INEC had made available for the day.

The petitioners also tendered form EC8D for Anambra State.

Form EC8D is the form for election results from the state.

Atiku asked the tribunal to declare him Nigeria’s President-elect.

Alternatively, Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the 2023 presidential election in thousands of polling units.

These are part of the seven prayers anchored on five grounds in the petition he filed against the victory of Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC)..