TheCable

The supreme court has refused an application by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking to inspect the central server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The appeal court had earlier struck out the application of Atiku and the PDP.

In its ruling on Tuesday, a five-man panel led by Datijo Mohammed, a judge, held that Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP and his party, do not have a reply to an application filed earlier by the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking the dismissal of the petition challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the election.

The apex court said the law does not allow it to set aside a valid decision of the lower court.

“Litigants should stop relying on the provision of fair hearing alone as it is not available to them just for the asking,” the court ruled.

The party had argued that the server contains authentic results of the 2019 presidential election which it claimed Atiku won.

The appeal court had ruled that it would decide on PDP’s request along with the main matter which is its dispute of the election results.

INEC had said Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat the former vice-president who secured 11, 262,978.

But Atiku in his application claimed that he polled 18,356,732 votes while Buhari secured 16,741,430, citing INEC’s server.