The People’s Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar have withdrawn their lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Both Atiku and the PDP had filed an appeal asking for their agents to be allowed to participate in the process of sorting out ballot papers that were used for the February 25 presidential election.
However, on Wednesday both withdrew the separate petitions they had brought before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, thereby discontinuing the application.
According to the Punch, 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 Joe Kyari Gadzama, told the court that he filed a notice of discontinuance.
Following this, Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led three-member panel struck out the application.
It was gathered that a member of Atiku’s team who pleaded anonymity, the decision to withdraw the application was reached at a meeting held with the Electoral body on Tuesday.
The source said, “Before the application which was dated March 13 could be slated for hearing, INEC, on its own, called our legal team for a meeting.
“It was at that meeting which held yesterday (Tuesday) that all the grey areas were sorted out, with INEC pledging to allow our agents to observe the process of sorting out some of the electoral materials we requested, especially the ballot papers.
“Since that was primarily our prayer in the fresh application we filed, we felt that it would not be necessary to proceed with the hearing. So, to save judicial time, we filed a notice of discontinuance which was accordingly granted.”
