The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to identify and prosecute its officials who registered underage voters in the national voter register within 90 days.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who delivered the judgment on Monday, also directed INEC to expunge the names of all the underage voters from the register and furnish the plaintiff, Rev. Mike Agbon, with a certified true copy of the cleaned-up register or publish it on its website.
The judge granted all the reliefs sought by Agbon, who had sued INEC for registering infants and toddlers during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Mr Agbon, through his lawyer, Desmond Yamah, had filed the suit on March 17, 2023, and posed six questions for determination, including whether the Commission was constitutionally and legally obligated to conduct credible CVR and whether it was illegal and unlawful for the Commission to register underage voters.
The plaintiff had also attached copies of the underage voters published on INEC’s website as Exhibit A to support his claim.
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The judge answered all the questions in favour of the plaintiff and held that INEC had violated the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act by registering underage voters.
He said the Commission’s admission that it had a substantial number of underage voters in its register did not exonerate it from any sanction within the ambit of the law.
He, therefore, ordered the Commission to identify, produce and hand over its officials involved in the registration of underage voters to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
He also ordered INEC to expunge the names of the underage voters from the register and provide the plaintiff with a copy of the cleaned-up register or publish it on its website within 90 days from the date of the judgment.