Ekiti State governorship election petition tribunal yesterday started considering the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, challenging the victory of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Ayodele Fayose, in the June 21 election.

At a sitting, the chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Mohammad Siraj, struck out the motion ex-parte filed by the APC, seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow it inspect the materials used for the poll, following the withdrawal of the motion by the APC.

APC counsel, Kabir Akingbolu, who held the brief for Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), said the motion was withdrawn on the premises that the event had overtaken the demand, and that the parties that were joined in the application were different from those in the substantive petition filed against the respondents.

The first and second respondents, Fayose and the PDP, did not make any legal representation in the argument on motion ex-parte at the tribunal.

The APC had on July 11, in a petition deposed to by its interim state chairman, Jide Awe, asked the tribunal to challenge the result of the election as declared by INEC.