The Presidential Election Petition court sitting in Abuja, has dismissed two motions filed by the Peoples Democratic party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress.
Atiku and the PDP, in the first motion (on notice) marked CA/PEC/13m/2023, sought the leave of the court to observe the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (INEC) machines being carried out by INEC officials.
While the second motion (exparte) filed on March 14, sought for an order from the court to serve court documents on Tinubu and APC by substituted means, that is, to serve their papers on their staff or paste it on their premises.
During the hearing on Wednesday, counsel to the PDP, Ifeanyi Iboko, said he has filed a notice of discontinuance.
He stated that he his withdrawing the motions on the grounds that they had been overtaken by events.
“Motion exparte having been withdrawn is hereby struck out,” the Appeal Court ruled.
Speaking to Bellnewsonline.com, Idoko said the intent of the motion was aimed at observing the reconfiguration of BVAS by INEC but that since the court had already granted the electoral umpire permission to go ahead with reconfiguration, “we felt there was no need continue the motions.”
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the February 25 presidential elections.
According to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, to defeat 17 other candidates who took part in the election.
However, Labour Party PresidentialI’m candidate, Peter Obi, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, have challenged Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential Tribunal.