The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, affirmed the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exclude candidates of the Labour Party (LP) from the forthcoming area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Justice Peter Lifu, in his judgment, declined to compel INEC to accept and publish the list of candidates submitted by the factional LP leader, Julius Abure, for the February 21 council poll.
The court dismissed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, which was filed by the Labour Party and its FCT candidates against INEC.
The plaintiffs had told the court that INEC, in September 2025, published the final list of candidates for the election but allegedly excluded the names of LP’s duly nominated candidates.
They further complained that the party’s logo was omitted from the list of political parties cleared to participate in the FCT election.
According to the LP, it wrote a letter to the INEC Chairman on September 8, 2025, drawing attention to the exclusion of its candidates and logo. The party said a follow-up letter dated October 2, 2025, on the same issue was ignored by the commission.
The LP argued that unless the court intervened, it would be unlawfully prevented from fielding candidates in the FCT Area Council elections.
However, in his judgement, Justice Lifu held that the suit constituted a pre-election matter under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The court observed that while the suit was filed on October 7, 2025, the cause of action, INEC’s exclusion of LP candidates, only occurred on October 22, 2025.
Justice Lifu noted that Section 285(14)(c) of the Constitution mandates that pre-election suits must be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the cause of action.
He held that the suit was statute-barred, having not been instituted within the constitutionally prescribed period, and that the court therefore lacked the jurisdiction to entertain it.
Justice Lifu also disclosed that his attention was drawn to a similar suit involving the same parties, which is currently pending before a High Court in Nasarawa State.
He said the existence of multiple suits on the same subject matter gave the impression that the plaintiffs were engaged in forum shopping.
Consequently, the court dismissed the suit in its entirety and refused to grant any of the reliefs sought against INEC.