The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to within 90 days, identify its officials that were involved in the registration of underaged before the 2023 general elections.
The court, in the judgment delivered by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, held that the culprits should be produced and handed over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
The court issued a mandatory order, compelling the electoral body to expunge forthwith from its national voters’ register the names of all the underaged voters in every polling unit across the federation, which it also published on its website.
It further made a mandatory order, compelling INEC to furnish the plaintiff that brought the matter before it, Reverend Mike Agbon, with a Certified True Copy, CTC, of the cleaned-up national voters’ register of all the persons eligible to vote in Nigeria, within 90 days.
In the alternative, the court directed INEC to publish the cleaned-up national voters’ register of all the persons eligible to vote in the country, in its website, within 90 days from the date of the judgment.
The judgement followed a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/367/2023, which had INEC as the sole defendant.
The plaintiff had, among other things, prayed the court to determine; “Whether the defendant is constitutionally, legally, and duty bound to conduct credible CVR in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Whether the defendant is bound by the constitution and its enabling statute, the Electoral Act, 2022, to act in strict compliance with the provisions of the constitution and its enabling act.
“Whether by Section 23 of the Electoral Act, 2022, it is illegal and unlawful for the defendant to have registered underaged i.e. infants and toddlers, during the CVR.
“Whether the admission by the defendant that it has a substantial number of underaged, illegal, and illegible voters published in its voters’ register exonerates the defendant from any sanction within the ambit of the law for registering underaged as contained in Sections 12 & 23 of the Electoral Act, 2022.”
Upon determination of the legal questions, the plaintiff sought, “a mandatory order, compelling and directing the defendant to forthwith within one month to identify, produce and handover its officials that are involved in the registration of the underaged in each polling unit across the federation for investigation and prosecution by the appropriate law enforcement agency.”
He told the court that since the return of democracy in the country in 1999, the regrettable issue of lack of credibility of the electoral processes had been a recurring challenge which had greatly distressed the political space.
He told the court that INEC, by the provisions of the Electoral Act, maintains and updates the national voters’ register.
The plaintiff said that before the 2023 general elections, the electoral umpire conducted Continuous voter registration, CVR, nationwide and displayed the national register of voters on its website between November 12 and 25, 2022.
He alleged that upon perusal of the national register of voters, he discovered that the commission registered underaged persons, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, which clearly described the qualification for registration.
According to the plaintiff, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had on November 23, 2022, at a national stakeholders’ forum on elections organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR), assured that based on the observations of Nigerians, the Commission would dutifully clean up the register ahead of the 2023 elections.
The plaintiff said he made a formal request for the Commission to furnish him with the list and names of the underaged and ineligible voters, but it vehemently refused and ignored the said application.
More so, he told the court that despite being served with court processes and hearing notices in the matter, INEC neither sent a legal representative to court nor filed any defence in respect of the suit.
Meantime, in his judgement, which was delivered on November 28, with the CTC sighted on Monday, Justice Egwuatu, held that the conditions for qualification to be registered as a voter were stipulated in Sections 77 (2), and 117 (2) of the Constitution and Section 12 of the Electoral Act.
He held that the common feature of the sections was that a voter must be a citizen of and residing in Nigeria and has attained the age of 18 years.
“As I found earlier in this judgment, the voters registered by the defendant in Exhibit ‘A’ are underage, that is, they have not attained the age of 18 years.
“What this translates into is that the registration officers and an updated officer of the defendant failed in their duties to carry out the registration of voters under the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act,” the judge held.
Citing provisions of Section 120(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022, Justice Egwuatu held that any official of INEC that acted in breach of the law ought to be held liable and upon conviction, convicted with a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
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