Nigerians are looking forward to the governorship and State House of Assembly elections even though the electoral body has shifted the D-day forward
One of the things their fear is manipulation of the results, but a court wants to make sure the governorship election is more credible than the presidential.
One of the issues with the process was the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the results from polling units.
However, in the governorship election, hopefully, this will be different.
A Federal High Court in Lagos has mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically and directly upload the results of the March 11, 2023 governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Lagos State from the polling places to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Being that INEC has postponed the election to March 18, it is not clear if this ruling with the old date will suffice.
The Labour Party and 41 other parties had filed a lawsuit, asking for an order of mandamus to compel INEC to abide by the Electoral Act and its rules for the conduct of the elections.
Judge Peter Lifu granted the order while delivering judgement in the case.
The judge ruled that the relief requested by the applicants had nothing to do with the actual conduct of the elections and is instead related to the preparation for the elections.
He pointed out that the applicants’ only goal was to urge the electoral board to follow the Constitution’s rules and regulations, which it did not do during the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023.
He stated that because the lawsuit was filed in conformity with the law’s provisions, the court had the authority to hear it.
The Court Application
The Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, its gubernatorial candidate, and 40 other people informed the court through their solicitor, Abbas Ibrahim, that certain presiding officers had complained of using the improper passwords as the reason they were unable to upload their BVAS information.
On the other hand, others said that whenever they attempted to upload, the BVAS displayed a “error” sign.
The applicants added that it became obvious that the defendant, INEC, had conspired with the APC in Lagos State to steal the mandate of the state’s good people and deny them their just victories in their various wards “after seeing the pattern of February 25 and 26” and throughout the period of collation of the presidential results in Abuja.
They contended that the same vote tampering would take place on March 11, 2023, during the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State if the court does not grant the leave.
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However, INEC had disputed the court’s authority to hear the case through its attorney, Mrs. Jacinta Kelechi-Ukaonu, arguing that the plaintiffs had failed to disclose any cause of action to support the use of the court’s discretion in their favour.
Additionally, INEC had argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed or struck out because it is speculative and premature.
The attorney claimed that INEC had informed Nigerians of the problems that led to the errors on February 25 and had assured all parties that it was making every effort to solve them.
The Commission added that it was a law-abiding organisation that tries its utmost to uphold all of its legal responsibilities.
Court Order To INEC
The court, as a result, granted the applicants’ motion for an order of mandamus directing and compelling the defendant to comply with and enforce the provisions of clause 37 of the REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS, 2022 for the conduct of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State on March 11, 2023.
The judge also issued an order of mandamus directing and compelling the defendant, all of its agents, and privies, as well as any other individuals acting on their behalf, to comply with and enforce the provisions of clause 38 of the REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS, 2022 for the conduct of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State on March 11, 2023, specifically, ordering the presiding officer of each polling unit to transmit or transfer the results of the polling units electronically, direct to the collation system and use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the completion of all the polling units voting and results procedures.
He also issued an order compelling the defendant to enforce the observance and compliance of Section 27(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 in the distribution of electoral materials during the conduct of the governorship and House of Assembly election in Lagos State on March 11, 2023, by hiring the services of impartial, competent, and reputable logistic companies that are not partisans or known supporters of any political party.
