Update:  Atiku, PDP suffer setback at Tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Monday suffered a shocking setback at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in their request to be granted access to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The five-man panel at the resumed sitting of the Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja, in consensus, rejected the request of the PDP and its Presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to be granted access to INEC server.

The five-man panel had unanimously refused to grant the request of the PDP and Atiku, explaining that issues have been joined by parties on the existence or otherwise of the server.

The judges insisted that the tribunal cannot delve into those issues at the interlocutory stage.

INEC had at a stage denied having server, adding that the presidential election results were not electronically transmitted; and at another stage admitted experimenting server in Anambra State Governorship election.

However, 25 INEC Returning Officers were said to have admitted that they transmitted results electronically during the 2019 elections.

More so, the Director of Strategic Communications of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo, had earlier petitioned the Department of Security Service (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police to arrest PDP leaders for hacking INEC server.

The server controversy has become controversial that the judiciary has come under pressure to administer justice.