Appeal Court Quashes Judgment Against Rivers LG Poll

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has nullified the judgment that barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing voters register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the conduct of local government elections held in the state on October 5, 2024.

In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, a special panel of the appellate court also faulted the Federal High Court for barring security agencies from providing security and carrying out their constitutional duties during the elections.

The Panel held that the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit against the Rivers State Local Government elections, stressing that Section 28 of the Electoral Act does not cover elections conducted by states, but only federal elections, governorship and area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.

Recalled that Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court had, in a judgment delivered on a suit that was filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC), stopped the conduct of the Rivers State LG election, criticising RSIEC for setting October 5 as the election date without adhering to the relevant laws governing the conduct of the election.

The trial court held that the RSIEC erred by fixing a date for the conduct of polls in the 23 local government areas without strict compliance with relevant laws guiding such election, even as Justice Lifu noted that RSIEC failed to publish the 90-day mandatory notice before it scheduled the election.

Additionally, the judge held that the update and revision of the voters’ register to be used for the election ought to have been concluded before any valid date could be fixed for the polls. Consequently, Justice Lifu ordered INEC not to make the certified voters register available to RSIEC, pending when the relevant laws were complied with.

He further barred RSIEC from accepting the Certified Voters’ Register from INEC or using the same for the purpose of the LG polls that were held on October 5.

The APC had in the substantive suit that was marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/987/2024, prayed the High Court to halt the election. In a 13-paragraph affidavit that was deposed to by one Tony Okocha, the acting Chairman of Rivers APC, the party told the court that the suit was necessitated by the failure of RSIEC to strictly comply with provisions of the Electoral Act in respect of the management of the register of voters intended to be used for the elections.

The deponent averred that it is only voter registers that are compiled, maintained, updated, and kept in the custody of INEC, that the Rivers Electoral Commission could obtain and use for the conduct of the LG polls, as RSIEC was not statutorily entitled to compile, maintain, update and keep in its custody any separate voters register.

The appeal is among several other appeals filed by aggrieved parties against some judgments of the Federal High Court Abuja. The Special Court of Appeal panel, set up to adjudicate on the political cases in Rivers State, led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, had reserved judgment in the consolidated appeals contesting the judgment of Justice Peter Lifu in relation to the political crisis rocking Rivers State.