The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday upheld the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission to bar candidates of the Labour Party from participating in the forthcoming Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, the court declined to order INEC to receive or publish the list of candidates presented by the LP for the council elections slated for February 21.
Justice Lifu struck out a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, instituted by the Labour Party and its candidates, in which they challenged their omission from INEC’s final list of contestants.
The plaintiffs had argued that when INEC released the final list of candidates in September 2025, the names of the party’s duly nominated candidates were omitted without justification.
They also contended that the party’s logo was excluded from the list of political parties cleared to take part in the poll, claiming that petitions written to the INEC chairman on September 8 and October 2, 2025, over the issue were allegedly ignored.
According to the LP, the court’s intervention was necessary to prevent its unlawful exclusion from the FCT Area Council elections.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu held that the dispute fell within the category of pre-election matters as provided under the 1999 Constitution.
The court observed that although the suit was filed on October 7, 2025, the cause of action — the exclusion of the LP candidates — arose on October 22, 2025.
Justice Lifu ruled that Section 285 of the Constitution mandates that pre-election suits must be instituted within 14 days of the occurrence of the cause of action, noting that failure to comply deprived the court of jurisdiction.
The judge also disclosed that his attention was drawn to a similar suit involving the same parties pending before a High Court in Nasarawa State, which he said gave the impression of forum shopping.
He consequently dismissed the case as statute-barred and refused all the reliefs sought against INEC.
The electoral commission had attributed its decision to exclude the LP’s candidates to the unresolved leadership crisis within the party.
