JUST IN: Court Dismisses Labour Party’s Suit Against INEC Over FCT Poll Exclusion
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday upheld the exclusion of Labour Party (LP) candidates from the upcoming Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Justice Peter Lifu declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish the list of candidates the LP nominated for the election scheduled for February 21.
The court dismissed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, filed by the LP and its FCT candidates against INEC.
The plaintiff had informed the court that INEC, in September 2025, published its final list of candidates “with the LP’s duly nominated candidates unlawfully excluded.”
The LP also told the court that on September 8, 2025, it wrote a letter to the INEC Chairman to complain about “the exclusion of not just the names of its nominated candidates but also the omission of its logo from the manifest of political parties that will partake in the FCT election.”
It further lamented that a subsequent letter to INEC on October 2, 2025, regarding the same issue, was ignored.
LP argued that “unless the court intervened, it would be unjustly excluded from fielding candidates in the impending FCT Council poll.”
In his judgement, Justice Lifu noted that the LP’s case fell under pre-election litigation as defined by the 1999 Constitution.
The court observed that “whereas the suit was filed on October 7, 2025, the cause of action, which was the exclusion of LP candidates by INEC, occurred on October 22, 2025.”
He highlighted that “section 285 of paragraph 14(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, clearly stipulated that such a pre-election matter must be filed within 14 days after the cause of action arose.”
The court held that it no longer had jurisdiction to intervene since the plaintiff’s case had become statute-barred for not being filed within the required period.
Justice Lifu also noted that a similar case involving the same parties was pending before a High Court in Nasarawa State, stating that “the existence of both suits created the impression that the plaintiff engaged in forum shopping.”
The court dismissed the suit as statute-barred and declined to grant any of the prayers sought by the LP against INEC.
It will be recalled that the leadership tussle within the party was the reason behind INEC’s decision not to recognise the list of candidates submitted by the party’s warring factions for the FCT poll.
