INEC Releases Report On 2023 General Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has unveiled a detailed report on the conduct of the 2023 general elections.  The statement, signed by Sam Olumekun, the national commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, revealed that the report was reviewed and approved for publication during the Commission’s weekly meeting on Thursday, February 22, 2024. In adherence to a tradition of transparency, INEC announced the release of the official report, a 526-page document organized into 13 chapters.  Enriched with 60 tables, 14 boxes, and 10 graphs, the report offers a thorough analysis of key processes, achievements, and challenges of the 2023 General Election. Highlighting the election’s diversity in party representation, the report notes significant democratic progress. Gubernatorial races saw victories for four political parties, while seven parties secured senatorial seats, eight in federal constituencies, and nine in State legislatures, indicating a broad shift in political representation across Nigeria. The report emphasized the pivotal role of technological advancements, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), in enhancing electoral integrity and reducing fraud.  Addressing public concerns, it provided insights into the technical issues faced during the upload of polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. Logistics, security arrangements, staff recruitment and training, inclusivity measures, and the electoral framework are among the various aspects covered in the comprehensive report.  INEC encouraged the public to access the document on their website (www.inecnigeria.org) and social media platforms, welcoming feedback to shape future electoral reforms and improvements.

S’Court reserves judgment on Nasarawa guber appeal

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Tuesday, reserved judgment in the Petition seeking to sack the incumbent governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Hon Emmanuel David Ombugadu, is praying the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Sule as the lawfully elected governor. The Petitioners, through Kanu Agabi SAN submitted that the October 2, 2023 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in favour of PDP and Ombugadu be restored. According to him, the Court of Appeal unjustly nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and unjustly declared Sule as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election. Agabi specifically called that the Supreme Court should allow the votes of Nasarawa state people to count and be meaningful be declaring PDP and Ombugadu as winners as rightly done by the Tribunal. However, Sule and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and APC, prayed court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit. APC lawyers, led by Akin Olujinmi SAN while adopting his brief of arguments asked the apex court to carefully looked into the cited authorities to back up their request for dismissal of the case. After taking arguments from lawyers, Justice Kekere-Ekun announced that judgment has been reserved and that the date for its delivery would be communicated to parties involved. The Appeal Court had on November 23 last year reversed the sack of Gov Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2. The Appellate Court held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor. In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal had said the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law. The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal. “Since the statements used by the Tribunal to sack the Governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, the statements were a product of illegality with no probate value for a law Court to act upon”. The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law. Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the PDP was a nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Tribunal denied the Governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition. Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the Tribunal invalid. In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state. INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured 283,016 votes.

Appeal Court Upholds Isah’s Election As Kogi East Senator

The Abuja division of the Appeal Court has affirmed the election of Jibrin Isah, of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the Senator representing Kogi East Senatorial District. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, was declared the winner of the said election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Victor Adoji of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) went to the Tribunal, citing cancellation of election results in some polling units where the PVCs collected were more than the margin of win. Specifically, he Prayed the court to nullify the victory of Isah and ordered a supplementary election in the affected 94 polling units in the senatorial district. In a unanimous Judgement, the tribunal led by Justice K.A. Orjiako ordered a rerun in 94 polling units where there were irregularities in the last general election. Not pleased with the judgment, Isah filed an appeal against the decision of the lower court.   The appeal court in its judgment on Thursday, held that the witness on which the tribunal relied its judgment on was incompetent.  The court subsequently expunged the exhibits presented by the witness from the records.  “The appeal succeeds. The judgment of the tribunal is hereby set aside and the appellant’s victory is sustained and affirmed, ” the appellate court held.