Rerun Elections: Court Dismisses Sacked Lawmakers’ Suit Against INEC

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it and its Candidates to participate in the 3rd February 2024 court of appeal ordered rerun elections in Plateau North Senatorial District and Jos North/ Bassa Federal Constituency.

Justice Nwite threw out the suit because the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain election matters, and the Applicants did not follow the due process of the law to initiate the matter.

The court further held that election-related matters are statutory and sui generis and cannot be commenced through prerogative writ as the defendant has done.

PDP had asked the court for an order of Mandamus to compel INEC to allow it and its Candidates to participate in the 3rd February 2024 court of appeal-ordered rerun elections in Plateau North Senatorial District and Jos North/ Bassa Federal Constituency.

Apart from the party, other respondents in the case are Simon Mwadkon and Musa Agah.

They had alleged that on January 8, 2024, the leadership of PDP had a meeting with the INEC Chairman wherein the INEC Chairman informed them that they would not participate in the rerun elections

They, therefore, urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to participate in the rerun.

Upon service of the court process on INEC, the electoral umpire raised a preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the matter because it was wrongly initiated.

In his ruling on the objections, the judge held that “election or election-related matters are sui generis (in a class of their own) and due to their peculiar nature, they are considered neither civil nor criminal proceedings.

“In other words, the laws governing ordinary civil or criminal proceedings do not apply to pre-election matters. Similarly, common law principles like the prerogative writs cannot be used to commence a pre-election or election-related matters like the Instant suit.

The same Supreme Court, in determining the sui generis nature of election and election-related matters and the type of principle that does not apply to it, stated in LOKPOBORI vs OGOLA (2016) 3 NWLR (pt.1499) 343 @ 364 paragraph F as follows: ‘It /s settled law that election and election-related matters are sui generls and that the jurisdiction to hear and determine them Is statutory just as the rights and obligations connected in addition to that or arising from that place it is in that respect the principles of common law may not be appropriate in election and related matters.’

“Flowing from the above legal position, It Is Crystal Clear that election-related matters are statutory and sui generis; the same cannot be commenced by way of the prerogative writ as in this case.

“The failure of the Applicants to initiate this suit by due process of the law has robbed this Honourable Court of the requisite jurisdiction to entertain this suit.

“Consequently, this suit is at this moment struck for lack of jurisdiction,” the court ruled.