THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will appeal a court order asking it to allow Nigerians to vote with their temporary voter cards (TVCs).
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the INEC Chairman Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement on Thursday, March 9, said the Commission will approach the appellate court to overturn the judgment of the Federal High Court.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been served a copy of the judgement delivered today by the Federal High Court, Abuja Division which ordered it to allow two Plaintiffs to vote with their Temporary Voter’s Card (TVC).
“The Commission is taking immediate steps to appeal against the judgement of the trial court,” the statement read.
An Abuja Federal High Court presided by Justice Obiora Egwuatu had, on Thursday in Abuja, ordered the Commission to allow the applicants use their TVCs in the absence of the PVCs.
The two applicants, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023 and filed on February 8, challenged INEC on the position that only a permanent voter card (PVC) can be used in an election.
Meanwhile, Justice Egwuatu, in his judgment, noted that there is no law that prohibits Nigerians from voting using the temporary voter’s cards.
“An order is made 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 judge held.
“This court makes 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.”
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M