Court orders INEC to accept LP candidates

Judge Inyang Ekwo of a federal high court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the Independent National Election Commission to accept the nomination of Labor Party candidates in 24 states for the upcoming general election.

The court ordered that the commission must accept the list of candidates in the 24 states manually or through its electronic nomination portal.

Judge Ekwo, in his rulings on 24 separate lawsuits brought against him by the LP, ruled that INEC had violated sections 31, 33 and 36 of the 2022 Electoral Act by rejecting the party’s candidates in the affected states on grounds of the failure of its nomination portal.

The 24 states affected by the court order are Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Lagos, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi and Ekiti.

Others include Katsina, Bayelsa, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa, and Cross River States.

The LP had conducted alternate nominations last November for its candidates who pulled out of general elections in the affected states.

The withdrawals were communicated to INEC by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party, along with notification of the October 27 date to hold primaries for replacement nominations.

However, at the time of uploading the names of the new candidates, INEC claimed that the nomination portal was faulty and refused to accept the candidate list manually.

Judge Ekwo said in the verdict that the party’s evidence through letters exchanged with INEC on the nomination issue was credible and went to attach probative value to it.

The judge said the time the party attempted to submit its candidate list in the 24 states was more than 90 days before the general election, and thus within the time allowed by law.

Judge Ekwo then ordered INEC to open its website to allow the party to submit the list of candidates or manually accept it with immediate effect.