A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, struck out a suit to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow Nigerians to cast their votes without even without the Permanent Voter Cards in the coming elections.
The suit dated December 29, 2022, was filed by the Incorporated Trustees Of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
The group had claimed to be representing 29 million registered voters about to be disenfranchised in the 2023 General Election.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, M.N Ozoaka, had sought, among other reliefs, “A Declaration that all Persons who have duly registered with the INEC as voters and whose names are contained in the defendant’s register of voters and or electronic database of registered voters should not and cannot be deprived of the right and opportunity to vote in the forthcoming general elections fixed for February to March 2023.
“An Order of the Honourable Court compelling the Defendant to release forthwith the Permanent Voter Cards of the Plaintiffs and all members of their class to enable them vote in the forthcoming general election fixed for February to March 2023.
“Or as an alternative, an Order of the Honourable Court directing the Defendant to reprint, distribute and release the Permanent Voters’ Cards of the Plaintiffs and all Persons they represent in this suit or otherwise allow them to vote with their old (temporary) voters’ cards or registration slips already issued and released to them by the defendant, the affected persons having been duly registered and Captured in the Defendant’s register of voters and or electronic database of registered voters.”
Ozoaka had told Justice Binta Nyako last Monday, that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), is designed to read the details of registered voters without PVCs since the VIN is captured on the INEC database.
But INEC’s legal representative, Abdul Aziz Sabi (SAN), had urged the court to decline jurisdiction on the matter because the electoral umpire has extended the deadline for collection of PVCs.
He also described the plaintiff’s claim that the last six digits of (VIN) can be captured by BVAS, as “mysterious”, adding that INEC guidelines cannot be interpreted narrowly.
Sabi contended that the plaintiff ought to have attached the temporary voter cards of the supposed 29 million people as proof before the court.
In her ruling on Tuesday, Justice Nyako held that the application amounts to an academic exercise because the PVC collection exercise is not over.
“The Commission has insisted that only PVC will be used. This application is hereby struck out.
“Unless you are going to give me the number of PVCs that are uncollected and those remaining, then I can make a decision,” the judge told the plaintiff”, she held.
Justice Nyako, who noted that the Electoral Act states that any “technological device” can be used at the polls, said in the event many don’t get their PVCs, INEC still have time to solve the problem, adding the Commission would have to tell Nigerians what technological device that can be used aside PVC.
