Days after a federal high court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Muhammed Umar Abuja, annulled sections of the timetable released by INEC for the conduct of the 2027 general elections, another court in the FCT has rebuked the electoral body for over-reaching its boundaries in issuing the timetable.
However, the federal high court, this time presided over by Mr Justice J.K. Omotosho, in ruling that INEC had the right to direct political parties to submit its membership register to the commission, lacked the powers to shorten the statutory timelines for the election.
Only a few days ago, INEC had filed an appeal challenging the judgement delivered by Umar, at the instance of the Youth Party which dragged INEC to the court.
Omotosho’s judgement came after the Social Democratic Party, SDP, had challenged aspects of INEC’s timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 elections.
Certified True Copy of the judgment dated May 26, 2026, showed that the court upheld INEC’s authority to prescribe timelines for party primaries and related political activities.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/720/2026, the SDP had questioned whether INEC possessed the legal powers to compel political parties to conduct their primaries within timelines fixed by the commission.
Ruling on the matter, Justice Omotosho held that election timetables lawfully include timelines for party primaries, submission of membership registers and other electoral activities.
“This Honourable Court hereby declares that Election Timetable is a chain of events or actions which include submission of membership register of political parties to be used for the purpose of primaries and fix timeframes within which political parties are to organize their primary Elections for the purpose of the stated 2027 Election,” the judge ruled.
However, the court partly upheld the SDP’s claims by ruling that INEC could not lawfully abridge the 120-day period stipulated under Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act for submission of candidates’ particulars.
The court consequently voided the August 29 and September 16, 2026 deadlines fixed by INEC for submission of nomination forms for presidential, National Assembly, governorship and House of Assembly elections.
