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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court (27477 Views)
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Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Caseless: 4:57pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
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. “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). 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. “With the advantage of hindsight, INEC, pursuant to its powers under the said Electoral Act, authorised the deployment of the said Card Readers. [b]“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.[/b] “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 decisions of this court”, Justice Nweze added. More so, using the Ebonyi state gubernatorial dispute as an instance, the apex court panel noted that the Head of Unit, ICT Data Management at INEC headquarters, who testified as the PW-8 before the tribunal, explained that the Card Reader performed two roles, namely, the verification of the Permanent Voters Card, PVC, and the authentication of fingerprint. It observed that the witness, who generated a Card Reader Machines Report for Ebonyi State Governorship Election, had admitted that it was not a complete report covering all the details of Polling Units in the state as some Polling Units were not uploaded and thus not included in the report. The witness said the report she tendered before the tribunal represented data that were successfully uploaded before the chairman of INEC gave an instruction for the server to be shut down. According to the Supreme Court, “Her trenchant responses, clearly, demonstrate that the Card Reader Machine Reports were neither inviolable nor sacrosanct as a host of intervening mischievous human variables could impinge on their reliability. “Against the background of the testimonies of PW8, it is, actually, surprising, that learned counsel to the appellant chose not to utilise the Voter’ Register, to show the entire gamut of the voters, but rather built his case on what, in the unanswerable words of the lower court was an exhibit that was not accurate, sufficient and comprehensive enough to be relied upon in proof of the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended. “That is to say that the appellant (as Petitioner) failed to weave his case on the Voters ‘Registers and a fortiori did not produce such registers because if he had produced them, their contents would have been unfavourable to the allegations he made in the petition and hence his decision to withhold them. “Thus, the appellant laboured in vain in the spirited attempt he made before this court to have the findings of the lower court vacated. He was, indeed, attempting the impossible given the anaemic evidence he adduced. In my view, the lower court, rightly, affirmed the findings of the trial tribunal in this regard”. Besides, the apex court held that the appellant, Edward Nkwegu Okereke, who was the candidate of the Labour Party during the April 11, 2015, governorship election in Ebonyi state, could not lay credible evidence to support his case against governor Umahi of the Peoples Democratic Party. The court said the case of the petitioner failed owing to “irreparable damage of the testimony of witnesses” that testified for him at the lower tribunal, who it said were “thoroughly discredited in cross-examination”. It will be recalled that though the Supreme Court dismissed Okereke’s appeal on January 27, it however reserved its reasons for doing so till yesterday. Aside the CJN, other members of the apex court panel that also agreed with the lead judgment were Justices Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, Kumai Bayang Aka’ahs, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, John Inyang Okoro and Amiru Sanusi. https://www.today.ng/news/national/75968/why-we-ignored-card-reader-reports-in-election-cases-scourt 5 Likes
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Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Nobody: 5:09pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
wow! very long but I'll try and read it 2 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by cosby02(m): 5:09pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Ok |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by babyfaceafrica: 5:11pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Na lie |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by baralatie(m): 5:11pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Very clearly stated! 9 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by baralatie(m): 5:13pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
babyfaceafrica:What is the lie there! Doess the electoral guidelines super cede the electoral act. Read the article again 30 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by ozoigbondu: 5:18pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
babyfaceafrica:Go to court if you don't like the Supreme Court judgement and stay there 27 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by ozoigbondu: 5:21pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Jega should be jailed for wasting millions to purchase a useless thing 56 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by bettercreature(m): 5:23pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Gang of robbers,You just signed death warrant of several innocent people comes 2019 No more reliance on tribunal all electoral malpractices will be settled on election day Nobody has monopoly of violence,Wike will meet us there in 2019 35 Likes 4 Shares |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Caseless: 5:25pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Angelberry:yeah, it is, but you have something to learn from it. I had to put it all out here cos as much as I hate the judgements , this report changed my thoughts about them. I don't think if you read this, you have any reason to wait for details that will be released on 12th of this month. Where's lalasticlala and mynd44 sef? Keneking , help me call them abeg. 5 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Caseless: 5:26pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
bettercreature: ![]() 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Nobody: 5:28pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
anybody who wants to critise this decsion should provide an altanative.dnt just bash without saying wat decision should have been given 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Caseless: 5:29pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
ozoigbondu:cos he helped to unseat his 'lordship in corruption' aka ineffectual-B? Go and die 16 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Caseless: 5:33pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
vsaintchigs:the lines in bold makes it easy for anyone to understand the position of the SC. 4 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by vedaxcool(m): 5:42pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
So the card reader cannot be used side by side with voters register which can easily be tempered with strange names like bill Clinton voting in Nigeria? These people enjoy on dwelling on technicalities rather than substance. They have condemned many to premature deaths by rejecting a fundamental blockage to violence. Rather than work for progress they have have become stumbling blocks. The same judges will gleefully tell you court has powers to make the law through interpretation but it seems when it comes to law benefiting the general public they hide their elitist heads in laws that are not progressive. 27 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by vedaxcool(m): 5:48pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
ozoigbondu:But where does that leaves your ineffectual b.... Lord? Who wasted trillions through a deliberate policy of promoting corruption? Jega should be jailed because a lover of corruption like you can no longer find crumbs of N300 falling off the table of a drunken master, else how can we explain such an absurd idea? 10 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by obinoral1179(m): 5:59pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
so my lordship are saying that the card readers only supplement the voters register and not to supplant it accoding to the electoral act. the card reader is the same with the voter register because all data that is on the register is clone to the card reader so to me the card reader and the voters register are like identical twins when one is not functioning the second can replace it. am not a legal practional but am sure this judgement as taken us back to rigging and manipulation of voters register and election. my take 23 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by ndcide(m): 6:03pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
bettercreature: Look at them...Janjaweeeds How many people you wan kill? If you Think the supporters of APC will kill their way to power again like boko haram, you fail. APC/Timipre tried killed as he liked. Ask him if he can sleep at night now. APC boasting that they will kill their way to power and kill those they want to govern. How crude can these janjaweedians get. Yet they shout "Anti corruption" 35 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Nobody: 7:29pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
bettercreature:is wike the only governor in Nigeria? why mention his name only? 8 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Montaque(m): 7:31pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
I am pro Pdp but this judgment has just committed the card reader to the dustbin of history. We spend Billions for its use, yet we can't support its use judicially. it has also opened ways for the electoral criminals to perpetrate their old tricks. The SC just rubbished the efforts made by GEJ and JEga in the recent past. 12 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Nobody: 7:45pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
English Language sef .....where is lalasticlala sef? This is Common Sense codified at a very high cerebral level. Basically, the outcome was 6-1. Huge loss to the Labour Candidate in this Ebonyi case. The terms below was deployed to intimidate and harass unlettered Nigerians. Anyway, I am watching them closely. 1. Bowdlerise sef 2. Paternity sef 3. Anaemic sef 4. Fortoiri sef 5. Probative value sef 6. Probative pedestal sef All I see is English language been weaved around simple common sensical proposition and discharged randomly in quick succession. ![]() 4 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Nobody: 7:48pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Caseless: Thanks for inviting to read this thesis. My respect has grown for the Supreme Court by 40%. I have been calling Oga since, I learnt he was booked today at a wedding. Pls don't ask me ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Pidggin(f): 8:30pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
All hail the Supreme Court! 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by TippyTop(m): 9:08pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
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. Thank God for Supreme court, APC were using the appeal courts to get what they couldn't get at the election. 6 Likes |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by web2X: 9:09pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
The card readers had various types of problems. I witnessed one that was configured for a different unit. 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by ShitHead(m): 9:09pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
There is still one thing you need to ignore my lords...that old cartoon character inside Aso Rock. 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by truetalknow: 9:10pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Nonsense 1 Like |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by Oluwamuyeewa(m): 9:10pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Angelberry: Pls summarize it for me love I hope they don't blame somebody again |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by truthspeaks: 9:11pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
Ok |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by shamecurls(m): 9:12pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
The Judiciary is the most corrupt institution in Nigeria. We only get to see that of the Nigerian police.....The Judiciary is worst 7 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Why We Ignored Card Reader Reports In Election Cases – S’court by donfelix4sure(m): 9:14pm On Feb 06, 2016 |
bettercreature:nor be only Wike...death ll meet... |
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