INEC to appeal court ruling for persons without PVCs to vote

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it will appeal a court order to allow two Nigerians to use their Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs) to vote in the governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

The two Nigerians, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, filed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, on Wednesday, February 8, challenging INEC’s position that only a permanent voter card (PVC) can be used in an election.

The presiding judge of the federal high court in Abuja, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, while delivering judgment on Thursday, said the applicants should be allowed to use their TVCs in the absence of the PVCs.

Justice Egwuatu stated that the order was made because the plaintiffs were duly registered and captured in INEC’s database.

“An order is made compelling the defendant (INEC) to allow the plaintiffs to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards issued by the defendant, the plaintiffs having been duly captured in the National Register of Voters’ database,” Egwuatu said.

“A declaration is made by this court that the plaintiffs, having fulfilled all necessary legal requirements to register and having consequently been captured in the defendant’s (INEC’s) central database and manual, printed paper-based record or hard copy format of the defendant’s maintained Register of Voters, the plaintiffs are entitled to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards in the forthcoming 2023 general election.”

Egwuata also held that there was no portion of the law, both the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, that states that it is only PVCs that could be used, but that the law under Section 47 provided for a voter’s card.