insists on review of results uploaded from BVAS



The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, yesterday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of bias, insisting that it ought to maintain neutrality in electoral contests among candidates.

Obi, in a reply he filed before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, faulted the electoral body for filing a preliminary objection in support of the President-elect and candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.


He noted that both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had in the past, cautioned INEC not to place itself “in a position where imputation of partiality in favour of one party against one will be levelled against it.”


The commission had in response prayed to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, to dismiss the petition filed by LP and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, saying the reliefs sought were not grantable.

The electoral body contended that Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, who were the APC presidential and vice presidential candidates were duly declared and returned as elected and issued Certificates of Return having fulfilled the requirements of the constitution to be so declared.

INEC is the 1st respondent in the petition filed before the tribunal by Obi, the 1st petitioner, and LP, the 2nd petitioner. They had dragged INEC, Tinubu, Shettima and the APC to the court as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.

In its reply filed by its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the INEC prayed the court to either “dismiss or strike out the petition for being grossly incompetent, abusive, vague, nebulous, generic, general, non-specific, ambiguous, equivocal, hypothetical and academic.”

‘INEC ought to be neutral’



Faulting INEC, Obi, who came third in the February 25 presidential election, recalled that the apex court had in the case of Attorney General of the Federation V. Abubakar (2007) 10 NWLR (Pto 1041), emphasized that the electoral commission must not only embrace neutrality as its watchword but “must always remain fair and focused.”

He said: “The 1st Respondent, forgetting its role as an electoral umpire, gave a Notice of Preliminary Objection to challenge the alleged incompetence of the Petition.

“The global best practice for electoral umpires in national elections is that an electoral body must avoid creating the impression that it has no respect for neutrality in an electoral contest between candidates.

“The appellate courts have repeatedly admonished the 1st Respondent of its need to remain neutral in election proceedings. However, the 1st Respondent hereof has remained impervious to change.

‘INEC adorned garb of a contestant in poll’

“Therefore, it is not only an embarrassment but a repudiation of the duty of the 1st Respondent when it adorns the garb of a contestant in an election it conducted as an umpire to raise preliminary objection against an Election Petition as in the case hereof.

“The expectation is that INEC will maintain a neutral stance in all litigations where participants in elections are challenging the outcome of the elections and not indulge in filing objections to the petition.

“The petitioners will before or at the Pre-Hearing Session or at the hearing of the petition, urge the Honourable Court to strike out and or to dismiss the 1st Respondent’s Notice of Preliminary Objection.”

Besides, Obi described as “misconceived”, INEC’s preliminary objection against the petition he lodged against the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election.

“The 1st Respondent’s contention that the reliefs sought in the Petition are not grantable is false and made in manifest disregard for the specific and concise pleadings in the Petition.

“The pleading in the 1st Respondent’s Notice of Preliminary Objection that the allegation in paragraph 20(ii) of the Petition is defective and does not disclose a cause of action, is wishful thinking”.

Obi further contended that Tinubu was not elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the election, adding that the Appeal Court, which will sit as the tribunal for the presidential election dispute, has the requisite jurisdiction to entertain and determine the real issues in the petition.

“The petitioners further aver that the necessary parties as required by law for the determination of the instant Petition are before the Honourable Court.

“The Honourable Court has the requisite jurisdiction to entertain and determine the real issues in this Petition”.
Furthermore, Obi contended that Tinubu’s running mate and Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, was not validly nominated to contest the presidential election.

“As at 14th July, 2022 when the 3rd Respondent was nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate of the 4th Respondent, the 3rd Respondent was still the Senatorial candidate of the 4th Respondent for the Borno Central Senatorial District, his name not having been withdrawn by the 4th


Respondent as stipulated by Section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022, “Borno Central Senatorial District is a Constituency for the purpose of a Senatorial election. Likewise, the entire Federation is a Constituency for election for the office of President and Vice President.

“Until there is a valid substitution of a candidate by a political party, the status quo remains and therefore the submission of the 3rd Respondent’s Form EC 9 as Vice-Presidential Candidate of the 4th Respondent did not automatically abrogate his subsisting nomination as senatorial candidate for the Senatorial election for Borno Central Senatorial District. The Petitioners’ case is not founded on Section 285(14) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)”, he argued.

Obi told the court that though LP had agents that were positioned at various polling units during the conduct of the election, he said INEC, unfortunately “failed and neglected to give clear copies of the result of the election in the polling units (Forms EC 8A) to the Petitioners’ Agents, as the pink copies given to the Petitioners Agents were very faint and unreadable”.

“In reply to the new issue raised in paragraphs 26 and 27 of the 1st Respondent’s Reply, the Petitioners aver that the actual votes obtained at the polling units as shown in the Report incorporated/pleaded in the Petition, show that the Petitioners won a majority of the lawful vote cast at the election, and met the constitutional requirement to be returned/declared as the winner of the election.

“In further answer to the said allegation by the 1st Respondent, the Petitioners aver that the actual result of the election shows that the 2nd Respondent neither won the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election nor met the constitutional requirement, including securing the 1/4 of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to be entitled to be returned/declared as the winner of the Presidential Election.


“Indeed, by the 1st Respondent’s record, the 2nd Respondent is the first candidate since 1999 to be declared the winner of the Presidential election without winning 25% of the votes cast in the FCT.

“The unlawful return/declaration of the 2nd Respondent as the winner of the Presidential Election in the hasty circumstances that characterized the said return/declaration is patently unconstitutional.

“The petitioners admit the averments paragraphs 28, 29 and 30 of the 1st Respondent’s Reply; and in further reaction to the new issues raised, state that the use of BVAS for the transmission/upload of the result of the election in the polling units electronically to the 1st Respondent’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is mandatory.

Manual Collation
The Petitioners in answer to the issue of “manual collation” stated in paragraph 31 of the Ist Respondent’s Reply, aver that by the applicable Laws and Regulations, the legitimate mode for resolving disputes at the collation is by resorting to the result uploaded on the IReV using the BVAS. As of the date of filing this Reply on 21st April 2023, the information on the 1st Respondent’s IReV Portal (http://www.inecelection-results.ng) shows that out of the 176,846 polling units, the results submitted were in respect of 167, 433 polling units; and that the percentage of the uploaded results on the IReV is 94.68%.

“In further answer, the Petitioners aver that the Ist Respondent’s IReV containing the election result of the election in the Polling Units (data of the election result) uploaded/stored on the IReV is hosted on the AWS or the Amazon Cloud Platform.


“The petitioners will at the trial rely on the server logs for the IReV Server, as well as the server content of the AWS Cloud Platform.

“In response to the issues raised in paragraphs 44, 45 and 46 of the I st Respondent’s Reply, the Petitioners aver that for resolving disputes relating to the collation of the election result, the only legitimate reference is to resort to the uploaded result from the BVAS to the IReV”, Obi added in the process he filed through his team of lawyers led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/04/presidential-poll-youre-biased-peter-obi-replies-inec-2/

Olodo and ticket hunter that does not even know his Party's manifesto, is still wondering why INEC is defending itself and the victorious candidate it validly declared as elected President?

The same way he made mistake that led to his shameful London detention.

For the talkative that he is, even on matters that are already before the court that he deliberately tries to spin to his favour on social media, he has deliberately become mute over his London arrest.

That is because he knows not to do with the UK, the nonsense he does in Nigeria over legal matters.

He is careful not to be lawless with the UK, but has no regard for Nigeria as seen by his 11th hour desperate ticket hunting that did not regard electoral laws.

I will implore The Tinubu administration not to waste any second in arresting this desperate mandate thief if he continues to create a nuisance outside of his ongoing election tribunal case.

Do not tolerate any nonsense from this shameless Yes Daddy religious warfare fellow who already knew he was going to lose the election.

Mr obi , you're biased religiously too .. equation balance

INEC would have avoided all these accusations by simply uploading the results on the irev portal right from the polling units.


This is where INEC got it all wrong. They spent billions preparing for the election and made so many promises to the hearing of every Nigerian that results will be uploaded real-time from polling units across the nation, why jettison it at the die-minute and still expect opposition parties to be happy?


Senate and Reps were uploading successfully while Presidential was blocked, its a clear sign of a dirty inside job, yet some people are celebrating this brazing corruption, it is well sha

Ok then what

humilitypays:
INEC would have avoided all these accusations by simply uploading the results on the irev portal right from the polling units.


This is where INEC got it all wrong. They spent billions preparing for the election and made so many promises to the hearing of every Nigerian that results will be uploaded real-time from polling units across the nation, why jettison it at the die-minute and still expect opposition parties to be happy?


Senate and Reps were uploading successfully while Presidential was blocked, its a clear sign of a dirty inside job, yet some people are celebrating this brazing corruption, it is well sha

Dont worry we told you there was clear intelligent information that the election was plan to be rig while the election.is upload in to the system from some here cyber tech



We have to do it the only way to catch them off guard

We move

bewla:
Dont worry we told you there was clear intelligent information that the election was plan to be rig while the election.is upload in to the system from some here cyber tech



We have to do it the only way to catch them off guard

We move

Those are lies bro. INEC did what they did in collabo with APC haven seen that the election was going the opposition way. It was a clear shameless rigging. This election would have been the best Nigeria ever had, all thanks to BVAS that INEC later rubbished by not uploading results to irev from polling units in realtime

Throwback:
Olodo and ticket hunter that does not even know his Party's manifesto, is still wondering why INEC is defending itself and the victorious candidate it validly declared as elected President?

The same way he made mistake that led to his shameful London detention.

For the talkative that he is, even on matters that are already before the court that he deliberately tries to spin to his favour on social media, he has deliberately become mute over his London arrest.

That is because he knows not to do with the UK, the nonsense he does in Nigeria over legal matters.

He is careful not to be lawless with the UK, but has no regard for Nigeria as seen by his 11th hour desperate ticket hunting that did not regard electoral laws.

I will implore The Tinubu administration not to waste any second in arresting this desperate mandate thief if he continues to create a nuisance outside of his ongoing election tribunal case.

Do not tolerate any nonsense from this shameless Yes Daddy religious warfare fellow who already knew he was going to lose the election.

the biggest olodo here Is you because It's like you have comprehension problem or you deliberately chose to be stewp1d.

Now, let me help you. The pettitioner is querying HiNEC for objecting its pettition
Instead of allowing Tinubu to do that. HiNEC was supposed to defend it's election not defending Tinubu. INEC is useless like most of you

bewla:
Ok then what

They are about to swear in Pablo Escobar and Osama bin laden, so the suffering of the masses continues

Eluuuup should rest IJN

humilitypays:
Those are lies bro. INEC did what they did in collabo with APC haven seen that the election was going the opposition way. It was a clear shameless rigging. This election would have been the best Nigeria ever had, all thanks to BVAS that INEC later rubbished by not uploading results to irev from polling units in realtime

In all election some one most rig

Even till tomorrow Trump still no believe him eyes

So let the wailers stay and not move
The country is moving forward

I hope Peter Obi will maintain the same stand when INEC will reply PDP’s petition against LP in Abia.
INEC has been defending its actions during election at the tribunal same way it did in Obi’s petition, nothing like supporting a political party.

It is too early for Peter Obi to start crying and bickering

INEC na very useless body
Once that mandate is returned, they will be scraped

marlow1962:

They are about to swear in Pablo Escobar and Osama bin laden, so the suffering of the masses continues

Thanks take a live out of the country ffor like eight years then will have another chance to

Kangaroo Nation.

humilitypays:
INEC would have avoided all these accusations by simply uploading the results on the irev portal right from the polling units.


This is where INEC got it all wrong. They spent billions preparing for the election and made so many promises to the hearing of every Nigerian that results will be uploaded real-time from polling units across the nation, why jettison it at the die-minute and still expect opposition parties to be happy?


Senate and Reps were uploading successfully while Presidential was blocked, its a clear sign of a dirty inside job, yet some people are celebrating this brazing corruption, it is well sha

your only option is to be crying online now

Tinubu have entered defense house reserved for next president, I was thinking you were going to stop him

Abi you waiting for inuguration day to do so

Tl;Dr but at the same time ,Obi can't help expose his crass ignorance.

You made INEC a first respondent in your suit by challenging them on the conduct of the elections.

How do you expect them to not defend their own role in pronouncing the final results.?

And then you turn around and claim they are biased for defending themselves over the election outcome .

inec is not just bias, they are evil. but whether they like it or not, good must prevail

Since I started Following Naija Politics in the year 1999,
this is the First time I am seeing INEC chairman Openly Defending a Presidential Candidate and Engaging another in a Fight. ☹️

bewla:
Thanks take a live out of the country ffor like eight years then will have another chance to

Nigeria is a dream killer, everybody knows that. But even you keep doing elections every 6-6 months, Nigerians have already find comfort in suffering, so nothing will ever change.

Do you know that if INEC doesn't defend itself against your allegations, inec officials risk facing criminal cases of knowingly colluding with APC or PDP to rig an election?

Obi isn't like the ordinary past presidential candidates. He isn't definitely joking as well

Iamgrey5:
Do you know that if INEC doesn't defend itself against your allegations, inec officials risk facing criminal cases of knowingly colluding with APC or PDP to rig an election?

Lots of people will turn a blind eye to this