The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been given a 90-day deadline by the Federal High Court in Abuja to identify and prosecute any of its employees who registered minors as voters in the national voter registry.
In addition, Judge Obiora Egwuatu, who handed down the ruling on Monday, ordered INEC to remove all voter names under the age of majority from the register and provide plaintiff Rev. Mike Agbon with a certified true copy of the updated registration, or post it on its website.
Agbon, who had sued INEC for registering infants and toddlers during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ahead of the general elections in 2023, was granted all of the reliefs requested by the judge.
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Desmond Yamah, Mr. Agbon’s attorney, filed the lawsuit on March 17, 2023, and posed six questions for determination, including whether INEC was constitutionally and legally obligated to conduct credible CVR and whether it was illegal and unlawful for INEC to register underage voters.
To bolster his argument, the plaintiff included copies of the voter registration forms for minors that were posted on the INEC website as Exhibit A.
The judge ruled in favour of the plaintiff on all of the questions posed and concluded that INEC’s registration of voters who were underage had breached both the Electoral Act and the constitution.
He claimed that INEC was still subject to legal penalties despite acknowledging that a sizable portion of the voters on its registry were minors.
Therefore, he gave INEC instructions to identify, produce, and turn over its representatives who were involved in the registration of minors to the relevant law enforcement body for an examination and potential legal action.
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Also, he gave INEC the order to remove the names of the voters who were too young from the register and provide the plaintiff with a copy of the cleaned-up register or publish it on its website within 90 days from the date of the judgment.
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