COURT: INEC AT LIBERTY TO DETERMINE MODE OF RESULTS TRANSMISSION

September 6, 2023

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was at liberty to decide the mode of transmission of election results during the presidential election on February 25, 2023, according to the Presidential Election Petitions Court, ruling on Wednesday.

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani said according to Sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC was at liberty to prescribe the manner in which election results were transmitted during the poll.

The Tribunal consequently dismissed the petition of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, which argued that the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be annulled on the basis on the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to upload election results electronically in real time.

The Tribunal also dismissed Obi and LP’s petitions on 25 per cent votes of Tinubu in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying that Abuja is like other states.

The court also said the petitioners – Obi and the LP — failed to prove that Tinubu was convicted for money laundering in the United States.

The Justice Tsammani panel ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners.