Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja once again barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the voters’ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the local government elections scheduled for October 5, 2024. The court’s decision followed a suit brought before it by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, which challenged the legality of the election date.<\/p>\n
Justice Lifu, delivering judgment, criticised RSIEC for scheduling the election without adhering to the legal framework governing local government elections. According to the judge, RSIEC failed to issue the mandatory 90-day public notice required by the law, rendering its actions unconstitutional. He held that the Rivers State electoral body violated the provisions of the local government election law by not allowing sufficient time for the proper publication and preparation ahead of the election.<\/p>\n
The judge also addressed the issue of the voters\u2019 register, emphasising that the updating and revision of the register must be completed before setting a valid election date. As such, Justice Lifu ordered INEC to withhold the certified voters\u2019 register from RSIEC until all legal conditions were met. Furthermore, the court barred RSIEC from accepting or using any voters\u2019 register from INEC for the upcoming October 5 polls.<\/p>\n
In a more decisive move, the court prohibited the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing any security for the election, further complicating the situation for RSIEC. This ruling reaffirms a previous court order issued on July 19, when Justice Lifu initially restrained INEC, the IGP, and the DSS from participating in or facilitating the electoral process following an ex-parte motion filed by the APC.<\/p>\n
The APC\u2019s legal team, consisting of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) Joseph Daudu, Sebastine Hon, and Ogwu James Onoja, argued the suit on behalf of the party. They challenged RSIEC’s actions, highlighting that the rushed election schedule undermined the electoral process and violated established laws.<\/p>\n
This ruling has significant implications for the upcoming local government elections in Rivers State. Without access to the voters’ register and adequate security, RSIEC’s ability to conduct the October 5 polls is severely compromised. The court’s decision underscores the importance of adhering to due process and following the law in the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja once again barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the voters’ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the local government elections scheduled for October 5, 2024. The court’s decision followed a suit brought before it by the All Progressives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-50324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50325,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50324\/revisions\/50325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}