The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have withdrawn an application they filed to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow their agents to participate in the process of sorting out ballot papers and electoral papers that were used for the presidential election that held on February 25.
PDP and Atiku are challenging the outcome of the election declared in favour of the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu..
Lawyers of the PDP and Atiku on Wednesday, March 15, told the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, that they were no longer interested in the application.
When the motion ex-parte, marked: CA/PEC/10M/2023, was called up for hearing on Wednesday, Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Joe Kyari Gadzama, SAN, told the court that he filed a notice of discontinuance, according to reports by VANGUARD.
The move comes after a meeting Atiku’s legal team held with the leadership of the electoral body on Tuesday.
Atiku had in the withdrawn application, which he predicated on 11 grounds, maintained that it was necessary for agents of his party to be present during the sorting out of the electoral materials he would need to prepare a petition he intends to lodge against the outcome of the presidential election.
Atiku said there was need for his agents to observe/participate in the sorting of materials he requested in all the offices of INEC nationwide, in line with the ex-parte order the court made on March 3.
Following the withdrawal of the application, Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led three-member panel struck it out.