By John Ikani
A Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the electronic transmission of Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly’s election results in Akwa Ibom state, in accordance with its regulations and guidelines.
The court, presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, also directed INEC to 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 polling units voting and results procedures.
INEC was also ordered to paste the publication of its result posters EC60(E) conspicuously at polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets in the state.
The judge went further to order INEC to enforce the compliance of Section 27(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022, by engaging the services of independent, competent, and reliable logistic companies who are non-partisans or known supporters of any political party for the distribution of electoral materials and personnel during the conduct of the polls in the state.
Justice Egwuatu held that since the electoral umpire acknowledged its responsibilities under the law and had not failed to carry them out, granting the prayers sought by the applicants would not do any harm to the commission but instead, energise its performance.
The judgment followed a suit filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom, Uduakobong Udoh, and 13 state’s House of Assembly candidates for the March 18 elections.
The applicants, through their lawyer, Moses Usoh-Abia, in the originating summons, had sued INEC as the sole defendant.
They sought seven reliefs, including an order of mandamus compelling INEC and all its agents to comply with and enforce the provision of Clause 37 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of the Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections in Akwa Ibom.
Also, they prayed the court to mandate the presiding officers of all polling units to conspicuously paste the publication of result posters EC460(E) at the polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets.
They further sought an order of mandamus compelling the commission to mandate the presiding officers of all polling units in the state to electronically transmit or transfer the result of the polling units directly to the collation system and use the 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.
These requests were made in compliance with the provision of Clause 38 of the guidelines for the conduct of the polls.
