I followed El Rufai's tweet and found this http:///jJaZFzWW

Court nullifies Jonathan’s election, threatens Edo polls

June 20th, 2012 by zebbook

A recent ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and six others over the use of transparent ballot boxes has invalidated the election of President Goodluck Jonathan and the entire 2011 general election, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting is reporting.

In a judgment that has possible far reaching political implications for the current political dispensation, the court also threatens the conduct of the governorship election in Edo State scheduled for next month.

Ruling in a case instituted by Beddings Holdings Limited against INEC, Attahiru Jega, its chairman, the Registrar of Patents, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and four companies, Justice Adamu Bello declared that the electoral body used the transparent ballot boxes illegally without the consent of the valid patent owner.

Having established Beddings Holding Limited’s ownership of the patent rights to transparent ballot boxes and that they were used without the company’s permission, the court ruled that “any action or actions whatsoever and howsoever taken or purported to have been taken by the defendants relating to the said products without the prior and express license, consent, authority and/or approval of the plaintiff is unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful and is therefore Null and Void.”

Also, significantly, the court placed a perpetual injunction on anyone from using the transparent and collapsible ballot boxes without the consent, license or authority of the patent owner, thus putting the upcoming governorship election in Edo State in jeopardy.

Beddings holdings Limited instituted the case in January, 2011 shortly before the general elections alleging that the electoral body was planning to infringe on it patent rights on transparent ballot boxes.

The company took the action after INEC sought for bids for the supply of transparent ballot boxes for use during the polls.

Bedding Holdings told the court that it wrote the commission to inform it that it holds the patent rights to both collapsible and transparent ballot boxes in Nigeria and that its consent or license was required before they could be used for the elections.

However, the electoral body went ahead and awarded the contract for the supply of the ballot boxes to three companies. The firms are Emchai Limited, Tambco United Limited and Anowat Project and Resources Limited. The three companies and the attorney general are the other defendants in the suit by Bedding Holdings.

Subsequently INEC sought and got approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, for the purchase of the ballot boxes.

The President presented the commission’s request to FEC through a memo dated November 15, 2010 in which he sought the council’s approval “for the award of contract for the supply of 150,000 units of Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes with pre-numbered security seals at N13, 000.00 each for the conduct of the 2011 General Elections, in favour of Messrs Emchai Limited, in the sum of N1, 950,000,000.00.”

In the memo, the president noted that the same company got the award of the contract for the supply of 300,000 collapsible transparent ballot boxes which were used for the 2007 election by INEC.

He went further to state that “Emchai Limited has the patent to its design and specifications” and that the commission decided to adopt the direct procurement method in the award of the contract to it “in order to maintain standardisation.”

After FEC approved the award of the contract, Bedding wrote a letter to the President dated November 25, 2010 wherein it informed him that is was the bona fide owner of the patent rights on collapsible transparent ballot boxes and that Emchai Limited and INEC had led him to misrepresent the facts put to FEC.

The company told the court that it got no response from the president.

Investigations show that, indeed the registrar of patents, a department in the ministry of commerce and industry, did issue Bedding Holdings a certificate of registration of patent rights No. RP 12994 and a certificate of industrial design rights No. RD 5946 for transparent ballot boxes on January 12, 1998.

[size=16pt]so what does this mean, he's stepping down?
He better![/size]

What a shame !!! If Mr President had been misled by Prof Jega of INEC to award the ballot box contract to companies that have no patent right on such sensitive electoral materials and the aggrieved owner of the patent right took the pain to inform him about the costly omission , i wonder why the dozens of Advisers and Senior Special assistants who are paid to guide him aright also failed to point out the dire consequence of ignoring the claim of Beddings Such an ugly situation like this could spell doom for this government and possibly provide a legal backing for his potential undertakers in the opposition. I hope i'm wrong.

The only thing we should be interested in is the implication of the ruling. Is GEJ going to obey the court judgment? If he is committed to the rule of law, then he should step down. But who knows? This is Nigeria, where the rule of law can be trampled upon anyhow!

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