The court orders INEC to accept Labor Party candidates in 24 states

A federal high court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the nomination of Labor Party (LP) candidates in 24 states of the Federation for the 2023 general election.

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

The trial judge, Judge Inyang Ekwo, in his rulings in the 24 different suits brought before him by the Labor Party, ruled that INEC violated sections 31, 33 and 36 of the 2022 Electoral Act by allowing the Labor Party candidates in the affected states on the grounds of non-functionality of its nomination portal.

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

The rest include Katsina, Bayelsa, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa, and Cross River States, among others.

The Labor Party had carried out replacement nominations in November last year for its candidates who pulled out of the 2023 general election 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.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN STAND

However, when uploading the names of the new candidates, INEC claimed that its nomination portal was faulty and refused to accept the candidate list manually, leading to 24 legal actions.

Judge Ekwo said in the verdict that the evidence provided by the Labor Party through correspondence with INEC in the nomination issue was credible and subsequently attached probative value to it.

The judge ruled that the consequences of a non-functioning electronic nomination portal could not be seen on the PvdA.

Judge Ekwo agreed with the Labor Party that INEC’s nomination and submission of the list of candidates cannot be rejected by any party until 90 days before the general election.

The judge said the Labor Party was trying to submit a list of its candidates in the 24 states more than 90 days before the 2023 general election. So it is within the legally allowed time.

Judge Ekwo ruled that INEC was required to manually accept the Labor Party’s candidate list once its electronic nomination portal malfunctioned and then ordered INEC to open its website to allow the Labor Party to manually submit or accept the candidate list with immediate effect. the 2023 general election.