A Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos State has nullified the previous Federal High Court’s decision directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload election results electronically.
The Labour Party (LP) had secured an order in March 2023, obliging INEC to adhere to the Electoral Act and its guidelines.
Justice Peter Lifu directed INEC to display results at polling units and electronically send them to the collation centre, as well as to INEC’s Results Viewing Portal.
Challenging the ruling, both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Social Democratic Party filed appeals. Despite not being a party in the original suit, APC appealed, fearing the decision would hamper its interests in the elections.
The three-man panel, including Justice Abubakar Umar, Justice Olukayode Bada, and Justice Onyekachi Otisi, emphasized INEC’s discretion in determining result transmission methods.
The court also pointed out the LP’s previous similar lawsuit against INEC in Abuja, labelling the recent suit as an abuse of the court process.
However, the APC asked the court to determine four issues:
“Whether by sections 50 (2) & 148 of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Clauses 37 and 38 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022, the lower court was right when it held that the presiding officers must electronically transmit the figures of election results from various polling units and thereafter proceeded to grant an order of mandamus compelling the 43d Respondent (INEC) to comply, enforce and abide by the provisions of clauses 37 and 38 of the Regulations And Guidelines For the Conduct Of Elections 2022 for the conduct of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State, when the substantive law pursuant to which it was issued grants unqualified discretion to INEC to determine and prescribe the mode by which election results at polling units may be transmitted including options of manual or physical transfer of results.”
“Whether considering the weight of evidence before the lower court, the judgment of the learned judge of the lower court is not a nullity considering the absence of all other necessary parties in the suit.
“Whether the action of the 1st respondent having earlier litigated suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1454/2022, the issues which it thereafter litigated with the 2nd -42nd respondents at the lower court in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/370/ 2023 is not an abuse of court process.”
Amongst other prayers, The appellant added that Clauses 37 and 38 Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022 are subsidiary legislation and cannot override the principal Act, which grants INEC discretion.
Counsel further submitted that an order of mandamus cannot be granted to fetter discretion relying on DODODO VS. EFCC (2013) 1 NWLR (PT 1336) 468 para D-E, adding that INEC’s decisions enjoy a presumption of correctness and the onus of proving the contrary is that of the 1st-42rd respondents.
Justice Umar opined, “With due respect to the learned judge, an order of mandamus cannot be granted to fetter the discretion.”
The judge also held that not even the allegation that INEC breached its regulations during the conduct of the presidential poll can justify the order of mandamus issued by the lower court “because that is an issue for the election tribunal”.
The appellate court also averted its mind to the decision of Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja and agreed with the APC that the suit in Lagos was an abuse of the court process.
