INEC’s delay in uploading results to IReV not relevant in court, says SDP presidential candidate

Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 elections, says issues around the result viewing portal may not be relevant to the presidential election petition tribunal.

Ahead of the 2023 polls, the IReV portal was part of the technologies introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve the transparency of the electoral process.

The commission had assured that polling unit results would be uploaded to the portal in real-time — but during the presidential election which was held on February 25, the portal was inactive for some time after the conclusion of the election.

The development sparked controversy over the outcome of the presidential election.

Adebayo shared his take on the issue while speaking on 90MinutesAfrica, a show hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo.

The SDP standard bearer said the debate on the IReV may be considered inconsequential by the supreme court.

He said many of the promises made by INEC, including uploading the presidential election results to the IReV in real-time, are not recognised by law and thus not legally binding.

“The supreme court is interested in the information inside the BVAS, the information in the voter’s register, and the actual result sheets. The issues of uploading results to IReV and other promises made by INEC are mostly not relevant in the determination of whether an election was properly conducted or not,” he said.

The SDP candidate said the allegation that President-elect Bola Tinubu was convicted in the US cannot hold water in court.

“The Nigerian constitution limits any conviction to the last ten years,” he said.

“So if it happened thirty years ago, though it is still morally reprehensible if the conviction actually happened, you can only use it to campaign against the person, but you [can]not bring it to the courts because they are constitutionally barred from talking about it after ten years.”

Adebayo also spoke on the issue of the alleged double nomination of Vice-President-elect Kashim Shettima, saying it may not be considered to be a “serious issue” in court.

“Primary election is not done for the position of running mate,” he said.

“So even if Shettima submitted his withdrawal from the senatorial race late, the important thing is that on the day of the election, while he was running as VP, somebody else was contesting as a senator in his constituency.”