S’Court: Unavailability of Results on IReV Can’t Invalidate Tinubu’s Election

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Justice John Okoro on Thursday stated that the unavailability of results on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing (IReV) “cannot be a ground to nullify” the February 25 presidential election which produced Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President.

Okoro stated this while delivering judgment in the appeal by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the last presidential election.

Amongst the grounds for nullification of Tinubu’s election, as canvassed by Atiku, was that the electoral umpire failed to comply with the electoral laws by failing to transmit results of the presidential election real time from the polling units to the IReV.

However, the presidential election petition tribunal disagreed with the claims of the petitioners that the non-transmission of election results electronically amounts to non-compliance with the electoral laws.

In its judgment, the apex court, which held that it has no reason to disturb the judgment of the Court of Appeal, noted that the appellants abandoned the duty placed on them to prove non-compliance and rely solely on INEC’s failure to transmit results real time.

Specifically, the apex court held that failure to transmit results to IReV does not affect the results of the election, pointing out that results in IReV are meant to be compared with the hardcopy results in an event of a dispute.

Details later…