BEVERLY HILLS, February 02, (THEWILL) – As widespread condemnation continues to greet the call for the postponement of the February general elections in some quarters, a fresh move has been made to put the election on hold.
This came as some aggrieved plaintiffs, Monday, dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before a Federal High court sitting in Abuja, seeking to stop the February general elections.
In suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/DW/2015 filed at the court through their counsel, Mr. Amobi Nzelu, the plaintiffs, Asogo Torkuma Venatius, Ola Solomon Oluwasanmi, Sunday Attah and Philip Agbese, are seeking an order to compel INEC to postpone the elections until all eligible voters have collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
They are also asking the court to order the use of the temporary voter cards for those who are unable to collect their PVCs as the prayed the court to order the postponement of the general election pending the provision of the PVCs to them since INEC is under statutory obligation to provide same to the plaintiffs.
In their statement of claim seen by THEWILL, the plaintiffs said that contrary to INEC’s announcement in 2014 that it would issue all eligible voters with PVC for the February 2015 election, about half of eligible voters were yet to collect their PVC.
Arguing that with just a few days to the elections, INEC was yet to produce and distribute voters card to them and other eligible voters, the trio said: “Till date, over 40 percent of eligible voters who were registered by the 1st defendant (INEC) for the up coming general elections were yet to receive their Permanent Voter’s Card.”
The plaintiffs added: “There have been several protests all over the country against the decision of the 1st Defendant to go on with the conduct of the general elections without distributing the PVC to millions of registered voters all over the country.”
Maintaining that if INEC was allowed to go ahead with the elections, millions of eligible voters would be disenfranchised, the plaintiffs said:
“The Electoral Act should not make the PVC a condition precedent for registered voters to cast their votes at the general elections.”
However, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the case as it has not been assigned to any judge.
