The Governorship, National and State House of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Bauchi on Thursday granted leave to former Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, of the All Progressives Congress, to inspect sensitive materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the March 18 governorship election in the state.
He contested and lost the election to incumbent Governor Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party.
A two-member panel, led by Justice F.N. Azinge, gave the order in Bauchi, following an ex-parte application filed by the candidate and his party.
Those involved in the matter are Mohammed, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission, which conducted the election and declared the winner.
Earlier, Rilwan Jibrin, holding the brief for Ishaq Magaji (SAN), the lead counsel to the applicant, prayed the court to compel INEC to allow his client to obtain documents in the Commission’s custody used for the election.
Jibrin said the documents would aid his petition against the emergence of Mohammed as the winner of the election.
In her ruling, Azinge said the application had merit and was granted accordingly.
Azinge, therefore, ordered INEC to make available all the election materials used for the conduct of the Bauchi State election to the applicant, his agents and counsel.
“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,” Aginze said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that on March 20, INEC declared Mohammed the winner of the election having polled 525,280 votes, while Abubakar, his closest rival, polled 432,272 votes.