In its ongoing proceeding, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) failure to electronically transmit results of the 2023 presidential election to the IREV portal did not affect the outcome of the election and eventual victory of President Bola Tinubu.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Inyang Okoro held that the IREV portal is not a collation system and its failure does not stop the collation of election results.
“Where the IREV portal fails, it does not stop the collation of results,” Justice Okoro stated.
Citing Section 135(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the apex court held that a petitioner must prove that any non-compliance substantially affected the result of the election.
Moreso, he held that Atiku did not tender original or duplicate copies of results that shows the non-compliance.
Justice Okoro further stated that the appellants (Atiku and PDP) failed to provide credible evidence that INEC’s inability to transmit results electronically to IREV substantially affected the final results declared by INEC.
The judge dismissed the appeal brought by Atiku Abubakar and PDP, affirming the election of Bola Tinubu as duly elected President.
“From the provisions of the electoral act, a petition must not only show non compliance with the electoral act and that this substantially affected the election results.
“The Irev portal is not a collation system even though part of the election process. Failure of Irev does not mean collation will have to stop. Collation is done manually.
“Results not posted on Irev cannot be the basis to nullify the election.
“There is nothing in the electoral act does not relieve a petitioner from leading evidence to prove non compliance.
“The issue of non loading of results on Irev is resolved against the appellants,” the judge ruled.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed that the burden of proof rests on petitioners to demonstrate that any breach of electoral guidelines substantially impacted the overall outcome.
