By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

THE Supreme Court, yesterday, explained why it has not accorded any probative value on reports from Card Reader Machines that were deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2015 general elections. The apex court, yesterday, maintained that though the use of the Electronic Card Reader Machine for accreditation of voters was provided for in the Approved Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2015 general elections, it said the device was never “intended to supplant, displace or supersede” the Voters’ Register.

It observed that the issue had resulted to various Divisions of the Court of Appeal, giving divergent interpretations on election disputes that were brought before them by appellants. “True, indeed, the Card Reader Machine traces its paternity to the above Guidelines and Regulations. Regrettably, its probative pedestal in the vocabulary of electoral jurisprudence has generated conflicting interpretations from Their Lordships of the different Divisions of the Court of Appeal”, the Supreme Court noted.


•Card reader
A seven-man panel of Justices of the apex court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, made the position of the court on the matter known, while adducing reasons why the election of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State was upheld. According to Justice Chima Centus Nweze who delivered the lead judgment, “With the intervention of this court, in its recent decision in Shinkafi v Yari (supra), it is hoped that practitioners and all other courts will begin to appreciate the position of the said Card Reader Machine, and the Reports generated therefrom, in election litigation.

“Prior to the authorisation of its use by the Guidelines and Manual (supra), the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended), in sections 49 (1) and (2), had ordained an analogue procedure for the accreditation process. As a corollary to the procedure outline above, section 53(2) of the said Act (that is, the Electoral Act) enshrined the consequences for the breach, negation or violation of the sanctity of the actual poll sequel to the consummation of the accreditation procedure in section 49 (supra).

“With the advantage of hindsight, INEC, pursuant to its powers under the said Electoral Act, authorised the deployment of the said Card Readers. “Even with the introduction of the said device, that is the Card Reader Machine, the National Assembly, in its wisdom, did not deem it necessary to bowdlerise the said analogue procedure in section 49 from the Act so that the Card Reader procedure would be the sole determinant of a valid accreditation process.

“Contrariwise, from the Corrigendum No 2, made on March 28, 2015, amending paragraph 13(b) of the Approved Guidelines, it stands to reason that the Card Reader was meant to supplement the Voter’ Register and was never designed or intended to supplant, displace or supersede it.

“Indeed, since the Guidelines and Manual, which authorised the use and deployment of the electronic Card Reader Machine, were made in exercise of the powers conferred by the Electoral Act, the said Card Reader cannot, logically, depose or dethrone the Voters’ Register whose judicial roots are, firmly, embedded or entrenched in the selfsame Electoral Act from which it )the Voters’ Register). Directly, derives its sustenance and currency.

“Thus, any attempt to invest it (the Card Reader Machine procedure) with such overreaching pre-eminence or superiority over the Voters’ Register is like converting an auxiliary procedure- into the dominant procedure- of proof, that is, proof of accreditation.

“This is a logical impossibility. Indeed, only recently, this court in Shinkafi vs Yari, confirmed the position that the Card Reader Machine has not supplanted the statement of results in appropriate forms; hence, the appellant still had the obligation to prove petition relating to accreditation of voters and over-voting as enunciated in several decisio

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Over to the National Assembly

Dey hv collected monies..God dey anyway......
.............God almighty must surelly do d final judgement,they should wait and see,even ur coim generation much share on it........dat is bad signal to nigeria democracy

I just don't get it. Is the card reader now their alibi, for the billions of naira they sold their souls for? Are they trying to tell us that the tribunals sat and debated for 3 months on card readers alone? Not only card readers can annul an election, many other issues can. There were several other issues now they want to tell us that no one was able to prove their case in all the states? Lol.

reuben79:
Dey hv collected monies..God dey anyway......
.............God almighty must surelly do d final judgement,they should wait and see,even ur coim generation much share on it........dat is bad signal to nigeria democracy

Go and sit down. How can Tribunal and Appeal disregard Card reader during the judgement of Lagos State election but the same Tribunal and Appeal based the Card reader on the judgement of Rivers and other opposition states. When it was clearly stated during the election that manual accreditation can take place in cases where card readers were faulting. And you know 70% of the card readers were abnormal. The Supreme Court judgement was very right on this.

reuben79:
Dey hv collected monies..God dey anyway......
.............God almighty must surelly do d final judgement,they should wait and see,even ur coim generation much share on it........dat is bad signal to nigeria democracy

are u d one that gave dem d money? Or u were there wen they received d money. Its not ur fault sha I don't expect u to understand wat the Justices were saying

NextGovernor:


Go and sit down. How can Tribunal and Appeal disregard Card reader during the judgement of Lagos State election but the same Tribunal and Appeal based the Card reader on the judgement of Rivers and other opposition states. When it was clearly stated during the election that manual accreditation can take place in cases where card readers were faulting. And you know 70% of the card readers were abnormal. The Supreme Court judgement was very right on this.

no 2 cases are idêntical. I don't know about Lagos but for rivers, the case wasn't on card readers alone. There were several other issues. Only that pdp saw the card reader Verdict for lagos and decided to use it to blackmail willing wailers like yourself. And they gave the supreme court money and the perfect alibi they needed.

D case has ended, everyone should return to his normal biz.. the card reader favoured APC in lagos but wen oda states used it against dem, they r complaining saying PDP shared money. I guess money wasn't shared in Lagos bah? Even d presidential election was rigged with under aged children from d north and them Apc aren't complaining... Nigeria can't be a one party state so accept d ruling and wait for 2019.. besides Pdp won in there strong zones

INEC should throw away all those card readers since the Supreme court does not recognize them.

The court of law sometimes is not the court of justice. The lesson here is for the national assembly to take it upon itself to give the card reader legal teeth such that in our next election the device that was introduced to give our election credibility and transparency will not be thrown to the garbage by the supreme court.

2015 election is done and dusted.

ddippset:
no 2 cases are idêntical. I don't know about Lagos but for rivers, the case wasn't on card readers alone. There were several other issues. Only that pdp saw the card reader Verdict for lagos and decided to use it to blackmail willing wailers like yourself. And they gave the supreme court money and the perfect alibi they needed.

You know why I laugh at you? I have never seen where a ruling party who has the affair of the Nation at hand accusing opposition of using the judiciary to perfect their desire. I only salute the Supreme court who never wanted to be compromised but rather gave a fair judgement.

What about the case in Taraba? Where APC brought in a case of election violence and rigging but rather your polluted Tribunal cancelled an election base on PDP primaries conducted which has no correlation with the case brought by the APC aspirant to court.

I so much salute the courage of Supreme court for this judgement.

NextGovernor:


You know why I laugh at you? I have never seen where a ruling party who has the affair of the Nation at hand accusing opposition of using the judiciary to perfect their desire. I only salute the Supreme court who never wanted to be compromised but rather gave a fair judgement.

What about the case in Taraba? Where APC brought in a case of election violence and rigging but rather your polluted Tribunal cancelled an election base on PDP primaries conducted which has no correlation with the case brought by the APC aspirant to court.

I so much salute the courage of Supreme court for this judgement.

that's because for the first time ever, the ruling party and president leaves everything on equity while the opposition party sneaks in and takes advantage, bribing judges here and there. We all knew how wike was running around Abuja looking for the chief justice Mahmoud Mohammed during the tribunal sitting. As for the supreme court, that wasnt courage, that was selling their souls for some billions of naira.

1shortblackboy:
are u d one that gave dem d money? Or u were there wen they received d money. Its not ur fault sha I don't expect u to understand wat the Justices were saying

guy forget justices in nigeria,wat we ar seen in nigeria here is judgements nothin like justices.........i no blame u cos u ws born and broutup in criminal enviroment u dose't no wat justice means

NextGovernor:


Go and sit down. How can Tribunal and Appeal disregard Card reader during the judgement of Lagos State election but the same Tribunal and Appeal based the Card reader on the judgement of Rivers and other opposition states. When it was clearly stated during the election that manual accreditation can take place in cases where card readers were faulting. And you know 70% of the card readers were abnormal. The Supreme Court judgement was very right on this.

naaa turn by turn dey ar judgement will reach u oneday ok