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 the underaged 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 equally 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 “Exhibit A” attached to the affidavit in support of the originating summons.
The judge 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.
He also answered the six questions posed by the plaintiff in the positive.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plaintiff, Rev. Mike Agbon, in the originating summons marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/367/2023 filed on March 17 through his lawyer, Desmond Yamah, had sued INEC as the sole defendant.
In the suit, the plaintiff posed six questions for determination including “whether the defendant is constitutionally, legally and duty bound to conduct credible CVR in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “Whether the constitution and its enabling statute bind the defendant, 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 underaged i.e. infants and toddlers, during the CVR.