{"id":16107,"date":"2026-11-12T16:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T16:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/2027-inec-will-obey-court-decision-on-atikus-eligibility-amupitan\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T16:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T16:30:51","slug":"2027-inec-will-obey-court-decision-on-atikus-eligibility-amupitan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/2027-inec-will-obey-court-decision-on-atikus-eligibility-amupitan\/","title":{"rendered":"2027: INEC will obey court decision on Atiku\u2019s eligibility \u2013 Amupitan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2027:<\/p>\n

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, has said the commission will be bound by court\u2019s decision on whether former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar can contest the 2027 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Amupitan stated this on Thursday while speaking at Chatham House in London, in response to a question on whether Atiku would be eligible to stand in the election if he failed to overturn the court judgment affecting the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).<\/p>\n

The INEC chairman said he was constitutionally obligated to obey court orders, particularly decisions of the Supreme Court, regardless of the political implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he eventually fails, well, I\u2019m obligated under Section 285 of the Constitution of Nigeria to obey every court order, especially if it is from the Supreme Court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amupitan, however, expressed concern about the volume of pending litigation involving the electoral commission as preparations for the 2027 general election gather pace.<\/p>\n

He disclosed that INEC had more than 300 cases pending against it, with the election about 66 days away at the time of the earlier dispute he referenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those issues we have with court cases, over 300 cases hanging on the neck of INEC, and elections is just about 66 days away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He explained that the commission had earlier supported an accelerated hearing of the ADC leadership dispute, insisting that pre-election cases should be resolved early enough to allow INEC to plan its logistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it happened in April, the position of the commission was that matter should be resolved within three weeks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amupitan added that the commission had proceeded on the basis of a court directive to suspend action and await the outcome of the legal process, but the matter eventually proceeded to appeal.<\/p>\n

He also called for reforms to prevent pre-election disputes from disrupting election preparations, proposing that such cases should abate at least six months or one year before an election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had advocated in several fora that we pre-election matters should abate at least a year before the election, or let\u2019s say six months, so that we can fix our logistics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The INEC chairman said the commission had already commenced procurement of sensitive election materials, making unresolved legal disputes a major concern.<\/p>\n

He warned that implementing court decisions could expose the commission to public criticism, even when it was merely complying with the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger is that whenever there is such decision, and it\u2019s you to now implement, you become the problem. The problem now is transferred unto you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Federal High Court had nullified the leadership of the ADC faction led by former Senate President David Mark, a ruling that has raised questions about the validity of Atiku\u2019s emergence as the party\u2019s presidential candidate.<\/p>\n

The ADC has said it will challenge the judgment at the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

The post 2027: INEC will obey court decision on Atiku\u2019s eligibility \u2013 Amupitan<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, has said the commission will be bound by court\u2019s decision on whether former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar can contest… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}