Abuja—The Federal High Court, on Thursday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, to allow electorates with Temporary Voter Cards, TVC, to participate in the Governorship and National Assembly elections rescheduled for March 18.
The court order was according to a suit that was brought before it by two registered voters, Kofoworola Olusegun, and Wilson Allwell.
Both had let out that they were unable to obtain their Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs, before the February 6 deadline despite their efforts and continued visits to the INEC office.
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The plaintiffs, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, prayed the court to compel INEC which was cited as the sole defendant, to allow registered voters that were unable to collect their PVCs before the expiration of the deadline, to vote in the coming elections.
They stated many duly registered electorates that could not obtain their PVC would be disenfranchised again unless the court intervened.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, therefore ruled that the evidence before the court established that the plaintiffs were duly registered with their details captured in INEC’s database.
He said:
“Compelling the defendant (INEC) to allow the plaintiffs to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards issued by the defendant, the plaintiffs having been duly captured in the National Register of Voter’s database.”
The order included:
“A declaration that the plaintiffs, having fulfilled all necessary legal requirements to register and having consequently been captured in the defendant’s (INEC’s) central database and manual, printed paper-based record or hard copy format of the defendant’s maintained Register of Voters, the plaintiffs are entitled to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards in the forthcoming 2023 General Election.”
According to the court, neither the 1999 Constitution, as amended, nor the Electoral Act 2022, emphasized that only PVC could be used for the elections. It held that the law merely stipulated the use of a voter’s card.
Additionally, Justice Egwuatu declined the third prayer the plaintiffs sought.
They demanded that every eligible voter with a TVC be allowed to vote.
On that, the court held it could not grant the order since the case was not filed in a representative capacity.
The judge said:
“This suit, having not been brought in a representative capacity, I find myself unable to grant any relief pursuant to prayer three of the plaintiffs’ application.”
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