The Federal High Court in Abuja has upheld the exclusion of candidates of the Labour Party (LP) from the forthcoming Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory, slated for February 21.
Justice Peter Lifu, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish the list of candidates submitted by the Labour Party for the election.
The court dismissed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, filed by the Labour Party and its candidates against INEC, on the ground that it was statute-barred.
Justice Lifu held that the case constituted a pre-election matter under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and was not filed within the legally prescribed timeframe.
According to the court, while the suit was filed on October 7, 2025, the cause of action, INEC’s exclusion of LP candidates, occurred on October 22, 2025.
The judge noted that Section 285(14)(c) of the Constitution clearly stipulates that pre-election suits must be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the cause of action.
“Having not been filed within the statutory period, this court no longer has the jurisdiction to entertain the matter,” Justice Lifu ruled.
The court further observed that a similar suit involving the same parties was pending before a High Court in Nasarawa State, a development Justice Lifu said created the impression of forum shopping.
He held that this further weakened the plaintiff’s case.
The Labour Party had told the court that INEC unlawfully excluded its candidates when it published its final list of candidates in September 2025.
The party said it wrote to the INEC Chairman on September 8, 2025, protesting not only the omission of its candidates but also the absence of its logo from the list of participating political parties.
It added that a second letter dated October 2, 2025, received no response from the electoral body.
The LP argued that unless the court intervened, it would be unjustly denied the opportunity to field candidates in the FCT council elections.
However, Justice Lifu declined all the reliefs sought by the Labour Party and dismissed the suit in its entirety.
It will be recalled that the protracted leadership crisis within the Labour Party informed INEC’s decision not to recognise the list of candidates submitted by the party’s warring factions for the FCT polls.