Lawyer Vincent Ottaokpukpu had asked the Federal High Court Abuja to nullify the N1.5 billion fee charged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to print copies of the national voter register and list of polling units across the country.

Ottaokpukpu on October 8 wrote to INEC to apply for the production and certification of the national register of voters’ and list of polling units in all the electoral wards for the entire country. He said he made the application under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011.

The commission, in its reply in a letter dated October 13, approved the request but demanded the sum of N1,505,901,750 as production cost.

Ottaokpukpu, in his eight reliefs, sought an order directing the electoral umpire to produce electronically certified copies of the documents requested into external hard drives at a fair cost to be determined by the court and hand the same over to him.

He sought an order directing the defendant to share the copies of the electronically certified copies of the national register of voters and list of polling units in all the electoral wards to his email: Ottaokpukpul2@ gmail.com upon payment of a fair cost to be determined by the court.

Besides, he sought, “an order of this honourable court, quashing the assessment of costs of production and certification of the national register of voters and list of polling units in all the electoral wards contained in the defendant’s letter dated October 13, 2025, and its press release of October16, 2025, as excessive, exploitative, null and void.