The Election Petition Tribunal in Oyo State on Monday ordered the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to allow Adebayo Adelabu, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to inspect election materials used in the March 9 governorship election.
Recall that after the election, INEC declared Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the election after he 515,621 votes to defeat Adelabu who had 357,982.
The Oyo APC and Adelabu filed a petition at the tribunal against INEC alleging irregularities in the process that made Makinde and the PDP winner of the governorship election. Other respondents in the case are the PDP and INEC.
The Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Anthony Akpovi, said he gave the order after considering the application made by Adelabu on its merit and felt it would help the petitioners in maintaining their case against the respondents.
The order came following the application of Mr Olajide Ola, counsel to Adelabu, asking the court to grant his motion exparte to inspect the governorship election materials in the state.
Akpovi ordered INEC to allow the petitioners and their agents to inspect and obtain all polling documents in the custody of INEC. He directed INEC to make available all ballot papers, voter registers and copies of all election materials in all polling units.
