Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who gave the order in a judgment in the originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/367/2023, ordered that the culprits be produced and handed over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to identify and hand over, within 90 days, its officials involved in the registration of the underage voters during the continuous voters’ registration (CVR) exercise in polling units across the country.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who gave the order in a judgment in the originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/367/2023, ordered that the culprits be produced and handed over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Justice Egwuatu also made a mandatory order compelling INEC to immediately expunge from its national voters’ register the names of all the underage voters from each of the polling units across the country published on its website as identified and compiled by the plaintiff in “Exhibit A” attached to the affidavit in support of the originating summons.
He also made a mandatory order compelling the electoral body 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.
The court alternatively ordered INEC 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.
The plaintiff in the suit had 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”
“Whether the admission by the defendant that it has a substantial number of the underaged, illegal and illegible voters published in its voters’ register, exonerates the defendant from any sanction within the ambit of the law for registering underaged as contained in Sections 12 & 23 of the Electoral Act, 2022? among others – the questions which the judge answered in the affirmative.