The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reinstate Oladipupo Adebutu as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Ogun State in the 2027 general election within 24 hours.
Justice Peter Lifu delivered the judgment on Friday, holding that INEC lacked the power to remove a candidate nominated by a political party without a court order.
The court held that the commission violated Adebutu’s right to a fair hearing by removing his name from the list of candidates without allowing him to present his case.
Justice Lifu said the Supreme Court’s decision on submitting party membership registers did not empower INEC to independently disqualify candidates because their names were missing from the registers.
The judge held that although the Supreme Court had ruled on the requirements for participation in party primaries, the decision could not be applied to parties that were not joined in the proceedings.
He said INEC should have joined the affected parties in the appeal to allow them to present their cases before taking decisions that affected their political rights.
The court further held that the power to nominate candidates for general elections rests with political parties, while the power to disqualify candidates after nomination rests with the courts.
Justice Lifu warned that allowing INEC to determine who qualifies to contest elections would undermine the right of political parties to nominate their candidates.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, was filed by the PDP and Adebutu following the omission of the party’s governorship candidate from INEC’s final list of candidates published on October 10.
Details later..,
Related News
Source: