A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to identify, within 90 days, its officials involved in the registration of underage persons during the Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) exercise in polling units across the country.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, in a judgment, also directed the culprits to be produced and handed over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
Justice Egwuatu also made a mandatory order compelling INEC to expunge forthwith from its national voters’ register, the names of all the underage voters from each of the polling units across the federation published on her website as identified and compiled by the plaintiff in
It further made a mandatory order, compelling the commission to furnish the plaintiff 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.
Alternatively, he ordered the electoral umpire to publish the cleaned-up national voters’ register of all the persons eligible to vote in the country on its website within 90 days from the date of the judgment.
The order followed judgment in an originating summons marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/367/2023, filed against INEC on March 17 by Rev. Mike Agbon, through his lawyer, Desmond Yamah.
In the suit, the plaintiff posed six questions for determination, including “whether the defendant is constitutionally and legally obligated 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 virtue of Section 23 of the Electoral Act, 2022, it is illegal and unlawful for the defendant to have registered underage, 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,” among others,
Agbon had sought “a mandatory order compelling and directing the defendant to forthwith within a period of one month to identify, produce and handover its officials that are involved in the registration of the underage in each polling unit across the federation for investigation and prosecution by the appropriate law enforcement agency”.
Agbon said prior to the 2023 general elections, the electoral umpire conducted CVR nationwide and displayed the national register of voters on its website between November 12, 2022 and November 25, 2022.
He alleged that upon perusal of the national register of voters, he discovered that the commission registered underage voters, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act (supra), which clearly described the qualification for registration.
The plaintiff, who backed his argument with compiled copies from the INEC website of the underage registered and marked it as “Exhibit A”, told the court that on Nov. 23, 2022, INEC’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at a national stakeholders’ forum on elections organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR).