The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have withdrawn an application they filed to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow their agents to participate in the process of sorting out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.
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.
Both PDP and Atiku, who are separately challenging the outcome of the election, told the Presidential Election Petition Court that they were no longer interested in the application and have filed a notice of discontinuance.
According to sources, the decision of Atiku to withdraw the application was as a result of a meeting his legal team held with the leadership of the electoral body on Tuesday.
He said they filed the application owing to challenges and administrative bottlenecks they encountered at the INEC office when they went for access to the election materials as ordered by the court.
Following the withdrawal of the application, Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led three-member panel struck it out.
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.
