The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and the Party on Wednesday withdrew a suit seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow PDP agents participate in the process of sorting out ballot papers that were used for the February 25, 2023, presidential election.

Atiku Abubakar and PDP in an affidavit told the Presidential Election Petition Court, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, that they were no longer interested in the application.

In an motion ex-parte numbered, CA/PEC/10M/2023, Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN) told the court that he filed a notice of discontinuance.

A member of the legal team narrated that the ex-parte motion was filed because of the challenges and administrative bottlenecks encountered at the INEC office when agents of the PDP and its presidential candidate went to access the election materials as ordered by the court.

“However, before the application 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 for, 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”, he added.

The three-member panel of Justices of the court, headed by Justice Joseph Ikyegh therafter, struck out the application, following its withdrawal.

Recall that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and Atiku are challenging the declaration of the Presidential candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election by INEC.