On Thursday, November 21, the Court of Appeal Abuja division, nullified the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the votersâ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission for the conduct of the state local government polls which has now been conducted.
Delivering judgement on Thursday, the special panel led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, held that the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Justice Otisi held that Section 28 of the Electoral Act does not cover elections conducted by states, only federal elections, governorship and area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
As reported by Channels TV, the appellate court also held that the lower court was wrong to have ordered security agencies not to carry out their constitutional duties.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court had delivered judgment in a suit, criticising RSIEC for setting October 5 as the election date without adhering to the relevant laws governing the conduct of the election.
He ruled that the Rivers state electoral body violated the provisions of the local government election law by failing to publish the mandatory 90-day notice before fixing the election date.
The judge further held that the updating and revision of the votersâ register should have been completed before a legally valid election date could be set.
He consequently ordered INEC not to release the Certified Votersâ Register to RSIEC until all legal requirements had been met.
This appeal is amongst other appeals filed by aggrieved parties against certain judgments of the Federal High Court Abuja.
As reported by The Punch, a special court of appeal panel, set up to adjudicate on the political cases in River state, led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, had reserved judgment in the consolidated appeals contesting the judgment of Justice Peter Lifu.
Read more about Rivers crisis here:
In another development, TimesNow.com.ng reported that the APC reacted to the recent judgment stopping allocation to Rivers state.
APC said it would stand by the court’s judgment according to âSections 120, 121, and 122″ of the constitution.
The APC chairman in Rivers state, Sir Tony Okocha, said the political crisis rocking the state was between Governor Sim Fubara and Nyesom Wike.
Source: TimesNow.com.ng
