In the lawsuit brought on Thursday by the Labour Party, its governorship candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and 40 other parties, Justice Peter Lifu granted the leave.
The court further prohibited INEC from using the services of people or organisations affiliated with any political party to distribute electoral materials.
A motion ex parte was used by the Labour Party and the other parties involved in the case to ask the court to order INEC to abide by the provisions of Section 27 of the Electoral Act regarding the distribution of election materials as well as Clauses 37 and 38 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections in 2022.
Through their lawyer, Ibrahim Abass, they sought declarations preventing INEC from engaging persons who are partisans in distributing election materials as well as an order compelling the electoral body to adhere to the guidelines on the conduct of elections.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu held, “That leave is hereby granted to the applicant to apply for an order of mandamus compelling the defendant and all its agents and/or their privies or any persons acting under their directions to comply with and enforce the provision of clause 38 of the REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS, 2022, for the conduct of the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State on 11 March 2023 to wit: mandating the presiding officer of all polling units to electronically transmit or transfer the result of the polling units, direct to the collation system and use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the completion of all the Polling Units voting and results procedures”.
In Addition, “a declaration that the defendant and all its agents and/or their privies or any persons acting under their directions are bound to comply with and enforce the provision of clause 37 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022, for the conduct of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State on 11 March 2023 to wit: Mandating the presiding officer of all polling unit to paste the Publication of Result Poster EC60(E) at the polling units conspicuously after completing the EC8A result sheet.”
The petitioners’ plea to shorten the amount of time INEC has to answer its Originating Summons was also approved by the court.
Before delaying the case until March 7th, 2023 for a hearing, the judge ordered that the Court Order and the Originating Summons be served.
After the controversy surrounding the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections last week, the petitioners brought the lawsuit after INEC failed to electronically transmit all of the results on its portal after votes were counted at various polling locations.
