INEC Approves N3 Billion To Fight Election Cases

The Independent National Electoral Commission has set aside more than N3 billion to support the outcomes of the elections for the governorship and state assembly held on March 18 and the presidential and national assembly elections held on February 25.

According to The PUNCH, a number of unsuccessful candidates have petitioned the presidential and state election petition tribunals to contest the results of the elections.

 

Over 100 petitions for elections have already been submitted nationwide by disgruntled candidates and their parties.

 

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Solomon Okangbuan of the Action Alliance, and Chichi Ojei of the Allied People’s Movement have all filed petitions calling for the annulment of the presidential election results.

 

The All Progressives Congress candidate for president, Bola Tinubu, was proclaimed the victor of the presidential election on February 25 by INEC on March 1. Nevertheless, the other five candidates filed petitions to void the election.

 

Additionally, candidates for the National Assembly who are dissatisfied with the outcomes of the recently concluded elections have filed petitions with election petition tribunals in more than 12 states.

 

States like Edo, Plateau, Ondo, Kwara, Ogun, Bayelsa, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Bauchi, Lagos, and Niger were among those where the petitions had been received.

 

In Ogun and Nasarawa states, several disgruntled candidates demonstrated and vowed to sue to overturn the election results.

 

Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, bemoaned the fact that the commission was managing more than 600 cases in various courts throughout the federation last November.

 

He said that the complaints filed against the electoral authority are related to the way political parties conducted their primaries while speaking at a training to strengthen the capacity of more than 300 judges who would handle election disputes.

 

However, INEC set aside N3b for the prosecution of election-related cases in its Election Project Plan for the general election of 2023.

 

“Litigation and prosecution: N2,104,965,000 (2022) and #3,087,195,425,” according to the document that was obtained on Sunday (2023). N5,192,160,425 in total.

 

A legal draft

The electoral umpire allocated N886.2 million for legal drafting and approval in 2022 and 2023, according to the INEC election project plan.

 

The commission budgeted N548.7 million for the same item this year, compared to N337.4 million for legal writing and approval in 2022.

 

The number of attorneys the electoral commission will retain to handle the many election petition cases filed with the tribunals could not be confirmed by The PUNCH.

 

When questioned on Sunday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the INEC chairman’s chief press secretary, said he had no idea how many lawyers the commission will hire.

 

Nevertheless, the commission has come under fire from the PDP and the All Progressives Grand Alliance over the sum set aside for legal fees, claiming INEC must operate within the law.

 

Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, asked the media to “rise and protest the wastefulness of INEC” in a phone chat with our reporter on Sunday.

 

He stated:

 

“Nigerians should question INEC about their high costs associated with defending electoral lawsuits. We have denounced INEC’s management of the general elections in 2023. The media need to speak out against INEC’s wastefulness.

 

“How can an institution utilize additional N3 billion for legal fees after spending over N 300 billion on BVAS? After the deployment of BVAS, there wasn’t supposed to be a credibility dilemma.

 

Parallel to this, Mr. Victor Oye, the national chairman of the APGA, raised concern about the enormous sum the commission wanted to spend in defense of the elections it held.

 

“That is quite alarming. This demonstrates that there will probably be more requests for elections in 2023 than there were in 2019. (election). This enormous sum might have been used for more innovative causes, thus it is not a positive development.

 

“There would be no need for this many lawsuits if elections were widely seen as free, fair, and trustworthy. This necessitates that INEC exercise more accountability in carrying out its constitutional duties, according to Oye.

 

APC spokesperson

Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, maintained that INEC’s strategy to defend itself against the many election petitions and other litigation brought against it was not “exceptional,” however.

 

Morka said that INEC had the right to defend the way the elections were conducted and their result while declining to comment on the budget at issue.

 

I have no knowledge of their financial situation or spending plan for the election petition battle, he said. But I can state that INEC, the body tasked with organizing elections for Nigeria, is the electoral umpire. This obligation includes participating in or defending any legal action brought about by that decision.

 

It is their legal obligation to reply to or defend any petition that is filed in opposition to it during the election’s administration. The legislation specifies INEC’s duties and grants the commission authority, which it would use in this situation.

 

“I don’t see anything unusual about INEC choosing to uphold the results of the election or provide its answer to the petitions that the parties have filed. We anticipate that, and we believe INEC has every right to react to such cases filed by candidates or parties.

 

Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party, disagreed with the APC’s stance on the matter.

 

Abure said that despite INEC’s N3 billion war fund, which he claimed would ultimately wind up in private pockets, his party and candidates were not scared.

 

He claims that all of the party’s followers, including presidential candidate Peter Obi, are certain that the court would act properly.

 

Moreover, he promised that LP will take its quest for justice to the Supreme Court in order to restore its authority.

 

He said, “We are all Nigerians, and we witnessed how the previous elections turned out. We are committed to taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

 

“I think sometimes the court may still do the right thing, despite the fact that many people lack trust in it. The benefit of the doubt will be given to them, nevertheless.

 

“We have great optimism and are certain that if there is ever a case where the judges would make the correct decision, it would be in this one. This is due to the fact that the recent elections were a rape of democracy.

 

“All the benefits of the growth of democracy since 2015 when the then-president Goodluck Jonathan conceded, all the modifications we have made to the Electoral Act, and other successes in the election process have been lost and the nation has returned to the 2007 period,” Abure said.

 

“Elections are being openly manipulated at this time, and security personnel are doing little to stop it. Ballot boxes are being stolen, voters are being intimidated, and hate speech is in full swing. To see all of them in the twenty-first century is absurd.

 

LP chair

The LP chair emphasized that the electoral umpire already has a number of problematic issues; as a result, he believed that no amount of money could prevent Obi from recovering his mandate.