One of the reasons why the 2023 Presidential Election has been described as ‘rigged’ by a large swathe of Nigerians, PDP and Labour Party chieftains and their respective candidates and spokespersons alike, is because the results of the election from various polling units were not immediately transferred electronically to a central server, as INEC promised it was going to do ahead of the vote.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said there was a technical glitch on presidential election day that prevented results from being transmitted electronically to the central viewing portal called iRev, much to the chagrin of opposition party chieftains like Dino Melaye.
On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal and affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as Governor of Osun State.
Legal minds and the general public alike, always talk of ‘precedence’ when discussing similar cases that will have an impact on how other cases that may end up before the same court(s), are decided.
To simplify, a court is likely to rule the same way as in a previous case, given the same circumstances and pieces of evidence.
What did the Justices say in Adeleke’s case?
Delivering judgment in the appeal filed by Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the July 2022 Osun election, a five-member panel of the apex court ruled that: “Therefore, the case of the appellants that the presiding officers were bound to instantly or on-the-spot transmit the number of accredited voters in the BVAS (Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System) to the backend server or database of INEC has no support,” according to Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment.
The apex court in its judgment held that to prove the allegation of over-voting as put forward by Oyetola (APC) and his team, a petitioner cannot rely on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iReV) or information on INEC server or database.
The BVAS, INEC voter register or form EC8A showing the number of votes cast at each polling unit, are the only admissible evidence that can be used to ascertain over-voting, the judges decided.
“Since the BVAS was the focal point and sole foundation of the appellant’s case, it was imperative that they produce the BVAS of the 744 polling units or a certified true copy (CTC) of the contents of the BVAS in evidence and show that the record therein established non-accreditation, improper accreditation and over-voting in the 744 polling units,” the Supreme Court ruled.
The Justices added that: “It is glaring that the appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS in any of the 744 polling units, but rather sought to prove their case of wrong and improper accreditation and over-voting by means of a report of the examination of the INEC database or backend server containing the number of accredited voters and number of votes for each polling unit transmitted from the BVAS.”
To restate the point, the Supreme Court believes that manual transmission is just as important as electronic transmission, and this came into effect in ruling in Adeleke’s favour.
“In the light of the foregoing, I hold that it is the record in the BVAS machine of the accredited voters or a certified true copy of an INEC certificate of that record for each polling unit that can prove the number of accredited voters in a polling unit on the day of election and nothing else,” the Supreme Court added.
What hope for the opposition political parties?
One of the reasons Peter Obi (LP) or Atiku Abubakar (PDP) supporters are hopeful that the declaration of Bola Tinubu as winner of the election will be overturned by the courts, is that results were not transmitted in real time to a central data base; that is besides other issues like the 25% needed to win in Abuja, and several other baggage Tinubu hauled with him into the election–including a past littered with alleged drug trafficking.
However, TheCable newspaper notes on the affirmation of Adeleke’s election: “One of the many implications of the judgment is that any future petition brought on the grounds of INEC’s failure to transmit results cannot stand.
“One of the issues raised by Peter Obi, Labour Party candidate, in his petition challenging the election of Bola Tinubu as President is that the failure of INEC to promptly upload the results from polling units through BVAS to IReV portal on the day of the election invalidated the poll.
“Also, any petitioners alleging over-voting must be able to produce the BVAS, INEC voters register and or a certified true copy of an INEC certificate of that record for each polling unit.”
And that, we believe, is a tall order.