Gubernatorial Election: INEC Faults Judgment To Allow The Use Of Temporary Voter’s Card In March 18 Polls

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday night vowed to appeal the Federal High court judgment, which ordered that two Nigerians with Temporary Voters cards (TVC) should be allowed to vote during the March 18, 2023  governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmim, said the commission wasc taking necessary steps to vacate the order. Oyekanmi confirmed that INEC had been served with the court order.

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He said, “INEC has been served a copy of the judgement delivered today by the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, which ordered it to allow two plaintiffs to vote with their Temporary voter’s Card. The commission is taking immediate steps to appeal against the judgement of the trial court.”

Report suggest that the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered INEC to allow the use of Temporary Voter’s cards in the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections rescheduled on March 18.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court, Abuja, made the order while delivering judgment on a suit filed by two aggrieved Nigerians, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, who prayed that they should be allowed to with their TVCs, as INEC failed to issue them with their Permanent Voter Cards before it closed the process.

The judge predicated the order on the grounds that plaintiffs were duly registered and captured in INEC’s database.

The counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr. Victor Opatola said the judgment was a win for all Nigerians who suffered to get registered to vote, were duly registered but due to no fault of theirs could not get their PVCs before the election.

According to Opatola, since my clients had fulfilled all necessary requirements by law but were not issued their PVCs until the time for collection of PVCs was over, they should not be allowed to suffer.

“So what the court is saying is that these two people mentioned above have fulfilled all necessary requirements can vote with their TVCs. By law of equity, it should also apply to all Nigerians who have fulfilled all necessary requirements and were issued TVCs by INEC”.

He maintained that this should be so because the content of the TVC was the same as the content of the PVC and the only difference was the plastic used for the PVC.

INEC had repeatedly held that only eligible voters with the PVCs would be allowed to vote in the 2023 presidential, governorship and parliamentary elections.

However, the plaintiffs, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell in the suit filed on February 8 and marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, had challenged the position of INEC and asked the court to determine, “Whether by the true construction and interpretation of section 10(2), 12(1) and 47 of the Electoral Act 2022; Section 77(2) and 132(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended), and bearing in mind that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine introduced by INEC only needs the thumbprint and/or facial recognition to accredit a voter.”