The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has upheld the exclusion of Labour Party candidates from the forthcoming Area Council elections in the federal capital territory.
Delivering the judgement on Wednesday, Justice Peter Lifu, declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish the list of candidates the LP nominated to participate in the election billed for February 21.
Lifu dismissed suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, which was filed by the Labour Party and its candidates in the federal capital territory against the electoral commission.
The LP had argued that INEC unlawfully excluded its duly nominated candidates when it published the final list of contestants in September 2025.
The party told the court that it wrote to the INEC chairman on September 8, 2025, to protest the omission of its candidates’ names and its party logo from the list of political parties cleared for the election.
According to the plaintiffs, a further letter sent to the commission on October 2, 2025, on the same issue did not receive any response.
The Labour Party maintained that without judicial intervention, it would be unfairly barred from participating in the impending Area Council elections in the federal capital territory.
In his judgement, Justice Lifu held that the dispute constituted a pre-election matter under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
The court observed that while the suit was instituted on October 7, 2025, the alleged cause of action arose on October 22, 2025.
Justice Lifu ruled that section 285, paragraph 14(c), of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, requires pre-election suits to be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the cause of action, leading to the dismissal of the case.