A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by
the Labour Party (LP) seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to adopt electronic means of transmitting the 2023 election
results.
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a judgment, held that Section 52(2)
of the Electoral Act, 2022, cited by counsel to the party, Monday Mawah,
provided for voting and transmission of results in accordance with the
procedure to be determined by INEC.
According to him, this is to say that the commission is at
liberty to prescribe or choose the manner in which election results shall be
transmitted.
The copy of the judgment delivered by Justice Nwite on Jan.
23, prior to the presidential and National Assembly elections held on Feb. 25,
was gotten by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
The LP, through its lawyer, had, on Aug. 22, 2022, filed the
originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1454/2022, to sue INEC as a sole
respondent.
The party asked the court to determine whether, with the
combined effect of sections 47 (2), 50 (2), 60(4), 60 (5) and 62 (1)(2) and
other relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, the commission can still
insist on manual collation of results in the general elections.
The LP sought two injunctive reliefs in the event that the
question was resolved in its favour.
These include, “a declaration that the respondent has no
power to opt for manual method other than the electronic method provided for by
the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022,” and an order compelling
INEC to comply with the Electoral Act 2022 on electronic transmission of
results in the general elections.
INEC, however, neither responded nor filed any process in
the suit.
Mawah in his argument submitted that in view of the
provisions of the law, manual collation of results was unknown to the Electoral
Act 2022 and therefore must be rejected or disallowed by the court.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Nwite said: “It is indeed a
trite law that the function of the court is no more than interpreting the law.
“In interpreting the law, the court is enjoined to interpret
the status as they are without going outside them to bring in what the court
would think was intended.”
According to him, the functions, roles and duties of the
court in the interpretation of a statute are to give meaning and effect to
clear and unambiguous words of the statute.
The judge said from the argument of the plaintiff’s counsel,
the bone of contention or the sections that they sought interpretation for were
Sections 50(2) 60(5) and 62(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
According to him: “The provision of Section 60(5) of the
Electoral Act, 2022, as cited above has provided for the transfer of election
results including the total number of the accredited voters from the polling
unit.
“Section 62(2) on the other hand provides for compilation,
maintenance and continuous update of the register of election results as a
distinct database for all polling units’ results as collated in all elections
conducted by the commission.
“The said Section 62(2) has mandated that such a register of
election results shall be kept in an electronic format by the commission at its
national headquarters.
“Now a close reading of Section 50(2) has provided for
voting and transmission of results to be done in accordance with the procedure
to be determined by the commission.
“This is to say that the commission is at liberty to
prescribe or choose the manner in which election results shall be transmitted.”
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