JUST IN: Appeal Court Strikes Out Atiku’s Motion Seeking To Monitor BVAS Reconfiguration By INEC

The Presidential Election Petition court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, struck out two motions filed by the Peoples Democratic party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against the Independent National Electoral Commission, President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress.

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 machines being carried out by INEC officials.

The second motion (exparte) was filed on March 14 and 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.

But at the proceedings, PDP’s counsel, Chief Ifeanyi Iboko, said he filed a notice of discontinuance, thereby withdrawing those motions on the grounds that they had been overtaken by events.

“Motion exparte having been withdrawn is hereby struck out,” the Court ruled.

Idoko told THE WHISTLER after the court rose that 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.”

Atiku and the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are challenging the 2023 presidential election.

INEC said it has begun to grant aggrieved parties access to the certified true copies of election materials.

The next stage in this litigation will be the filing of petitions by the respective political parties.