BREAKING: Court Stops INEC From Releasing Voters’ Register To Rivers Electoral Commission

In a dramatic turn of events, the Federal High Court in Abuja has barred the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from releasing voters’ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC.

This decision comes a few days before the Local Government Elections in the state which is scheduled for October 5, 2024.

The court also prevented the Inspector General of Police and the Department of the State Service (DSS) from providing security.

In a ruling, Justice Peter Lifu made this decision while settling a case presented to him by the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The case was presented by the APC with a team of experienced lawyers, including Joseph Daudu, Sebastine Hon, and Ogwu James Onoja, all of whom are Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

Justice Lifu determined that the RSIEC made an error in setting the October 5 date for the election when all necessary laws for the election process had not been followed.

He also found that the Rivers State electoral commission broke the rules of the local government election conduct law by failing to issue a 90-day notice before deciding on the election date.

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Furthermore, Justice Lifu stated that the process of updating and revising the voter’s list should have been completed before the election date could be legally and validly set.

As a result, the judge instructed INEC not to release the certified voters’ list to RSIEC until all legal requirements are met.

Justice Peter Lifu also prohibited RSIEC from using any voter’s list provided by INEC or from using it for the October 5 local government election.