Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has cleared the coast for the registration of the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) by ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to generate and subsequently release the Access Code for the party’s registration to the Chief Akin Rickett-led leadership of the ADA.
The judge, in a judgement delivered on Monday, gave INEC 72 hours within which the access code must be released to the Protem Secretary of the ADA.
Justice Lifu in the judgement faulted the electoral body for releasing the access code to one, Umar Ardo, who was not the recognised protem secretary of the political association, and consequently declared the action of INEC as illegal, wrongful, null and void.
The court further ordered INEC to open its portal for a period of one week to enable the plaintiff, Chief Akin Rickett, to upload necessary documents, including the membership register into INEC’s custody as required by law.
The plaintiff, through his counsel, Stephen Atabo, had dragged the electoral body and Ardo before the court, seeking declarations among others that INEC has not issued an access code to the plaintiff for the purpose of uploading their information and documents for the registration of their political association, the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) as a political party, in compliance with extant laws.
He also sought another declaration that INEC was in violation of the extant laws when it issued the access code to the second defendant, Umar Ardo, who is neither the Protem National Chairman nor the secretary of the association, instead of the plaintiff, who is the protem national chairman.
Plaintiff further pleaded with the court to declare that the information uploaded into INEC’s portal by a wrongful person, or Umar Ardo on behalf of ADA, was in violation of the extant laws, as it was at variance with the information in the plaintiff’s letter of intent and should therefore be declared illegal, unlawful, null and void and of no effect.
Besides, the plaintiff asked for an order of the court against INEC directing it to release the access code to the plaintiff for the purpose of uploading their information and documents for the registration of their association as a political party.
Plaintiff also asked for an order directing INEC to register their political association as a political party and as well issue a certificate of registration to the plaintiff.
Similarly, an order of the court directing INEC to extend the deadlines of May 10, 2026 and May 30, 2026, for the submission of their digital register of members and submission of candidates, respectively, to the electoral body.
After reviewing the submissions of counsel to parties involved in the suit, Justice Lifu agreed that Umar Ardo was neither the national protem chairman nor secretary of the political association and therefore nullified all the steps and actions taken on behalf of the ADA.
Among the orders made by the court are, “A declaration that INEC’s issuance of the association’s access code to the second defendant for the purpose of uploading registration documents was wrongful, illegal, null and void.
“An order directing INEC to immediately generate and release a fresh access code within 72 hours to the association through the recognised protem secretary named in the association’s records.
“An order directing INEC to reopen its registration portal for one week after issuance of the new access code to enable ADA complete the upload of its membership register and other statutory registration requirements”.
The judgment effectively clears the way for the Akin Ricketts-led leadership of the All Democratic Alliance to continue its registration process with INEC as a political party.
Earlier, Justice Lifu dismissed preliminary objections challenging the competence of the suit, including arguments that the action was statute-barred under Section 76 of the Electoral Act, 2022, and that it constituted an abuse of court process.
The judge held that Section 76, which requires challenges to INEC’s refusal to register a political party to be filed within 14 days, was inapplicable because INEC had not taken any decision refusing ADA’s registration.
According to the court, the registration process remained ongoing since no formal letter of refusal had been issued by the commission.
“There is absolutely no letter of denial of registration or evidence of such a decision of INEC before the court. The process of registration of the political association is still ongoing and has not been terminated,” Justice Lifu held.
On the allegation of abuse of court process, the court ruled that the present suit was distinct from an earlier case involving some parties connected with the association and therefore did not amount to multiple actions over the same subject matter.
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