2019 Polls: Tribunal Orders INEC To Allow Atiku, PDP To Inspect Election Materials
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to surrender all the materials used for the February 23 presidential election, for inspection.
The tribunal, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justice led by Justice Abdul Aboki, directed the electoral body to grant the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, access to the materials.
However, the panel declined to allow Atiku and PDP to conduct forensic analysis on any of the election materials, stressing that such request was outside the scope of the Electoral Act, as amended. Justice Aboki who delivered the lead ruling, held that Atiku’s request for experts to be permitted to conduct forensic audit on the election materials, could not be regarded as “examination”, as stipulated in section 151 of the Electoral Act.
He held that a decided case-law in Hope Uzodinma Vs Osita Izunaso, which Atiku and the PDP relied upon, wherein the tribunal ordered INEC to allow the petitioner to scan and conduct forensic audit on all the election materials, had since been set-aside by the Court of Appeal.
Justice Aboki noted that the said ruling was vacated on the basis that “extensive orders” that were made by the lower tribunal, were totally outside the ambit of section 151 of the Electoral Act.
He said the appellate court voided the order on the premise that it violated the right of fair hearing of the Respondents under section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
“In that case, the orders were set-asids and the appropriate order was made within the ambit of section 151 of the Electoral Act”, Justice Aboki added.
Besides, he held that contrary to Atiku and PDP’s ex-parte motion, in Uzodinma’s case, the application was made when the tribunal had already commenced trial, “not when the petition was yet to be instituted”.
Consequently, the tribunal said it would only order INEC to grant the Applicants access to examine and obtain Certified True Copies of election materials used for the presidential election.
“Prayers 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the motion paper are hereby refused”, the tribunal held. Other members of the panel that concurred with the lead ruling were Justices Emmanuel Agim and Peter Ige.
The ruling came over three hours after Atiku and the PDP, through their team of lawyers comprising of three Senior Advocates of Nigeria, adduced reasons why INEC should be compelled to produce the election materials for forensic analysis.
Though their legal team was led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, however, it was Chief Chris Uche, SAN, that addressed the tribunal on behalf of the Applicants. Specifically, Atiku and his party, told the tribunal that the essence of the request was to establish that the presidential election was fraught with manifest irregularities they said included multiple thumb printing of ballot papers.
They expressed determination to engage forensic experts to scritinze all materials that INEC deployed for the election.
In the joint motion ex-parte marked CA/A/P/EPT/1/2019, Atiku and PDP prayed the tribunal for leave to be allowed to obtain the sensitive materials from INEC.
Aside INEC, other respondents in the motion were President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC. Uche told the tribunal that the motion dated March 4, was also filed pursuant to section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, contained six reliefs.
Among items he said his client wanted leave of the tribunal to be inspected by forensic experts, included over 80million ballot papers that were used for the election, which he said would be subjected to thumb print analysis.
Other items the motion sought to be released to the intending petitioners for scrutiny were the Voters Register, the Smart Card Reader Machines, as well as information stored in INEC’s back-up server.
The first prayer in the motion, which was granted by the panel, was leave for Atiku and the PDP to file the action before the pre-hearing session of the tribunal, as prescribed by the Electoral Act.
The second prayer was for INEC to allow the Applicants or their agents, to scan and make photocopies of vital documents used in the conduct of the election, for the purpose of establishing manifest irregularities that allegedly led to President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as winner of the presidential election.
The Applicant told the tribunal that reliefs they sought against INEC was for the purpose of filing and maintaining an election petition they intend to lodge against the outcome of the 2019 Presidential Election. They insisted that prayers contained in the motion was also granted in Osun governorship election dispute between Rauf Aregbesola and Olagunsoye Onyinola.