Supreme Court Delivers Key Judgement on Electronic Transmission of Election Results

• The Supreme Court has said there is no law that requires INEC to transmit election results to the database or backend server of the commission
• This verdict follows a similar judgment by an Abuja Federal High Court on Monday, January 23 in the case involving Peter Obi of the Labour Party and the president-elect, Bola Tinubu
• Judges at both the Supreme and High courts held that the commission is at liberty to pick any method of transmitting election results

FCT, Abuja - The Supreme Court has declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not bound to electronically transmit election results.

Delivering judgement on Tuesday, May 9, in the appeal filed by Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a five-member panel of the apex court emphasised that there is no law that compels presiding officers to transmit the accreditation of the polls to the database or backend server of INEC by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), as claimed by the appellants, The Cable reported.

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Emmanuel Agim who read the lead judgement said:

“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 to the backend server or database of INEC has no support.”

Implication of the Supreme Court's judgment

Political pundits opine that one of the implications of the judgment is that any future petition brought on the grounds of INEC’s failure to transmit results may not stand.

It would be recalled that one of the issues raised by Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, in his petition challenging the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president-elect 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.

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Jubilation as Supreme Court confirms Adeleke as Osun State’s legitimate governor

Legit.ng on Tuesday, May 9, reported that the Supreme Court confirmed Ademola Adeleke as the legitimate governor of Osun State.

The apex court said the plaintiff and former governor of the state Gboyega Oyetola and All Progressives Congress (APC) failed to prove its case of improper accreditation of voters and over-voting.

Tinubu congratulates Osun governor Adeleke

Reacting to the development, Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, sent warm greetings to Governor Adeleke.

Tinubu, in a statement sent to Legit.ng and signed by Tunde Rahman of the president-elect's office on Tuesday, May 9, urged the governor to immediately move in uniting the state.

Davido shares photo of his dad and victorious Gov Adeleke

Legit.ng also reported that the internationally renowned Afrobeat singer David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido has stirred reactions online with a photo of his dad, Chief Adedeji Adeleke and his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, which he shared on his page.

The Adeleke family has continued to celebrate their recent victory at the Supreme Court after Davido's uncle, Ademola Adeleke, was affirmed as the governor of Osun State.

Source: Legit.ng