Court Gives INEC 24 Hours To Reinstate Adebutu As Ogun PDP Governorship Candidate

The Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to restore the name of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, to its list of candidates for the 2027 election within 24 hours.

The court ruled that INEC acted outside its constitutional and statutory powers when it excluded Adebutu from the list without affording him an opportunity to defend himself.

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Peter Lifu held that the commission could not independently disqualify a candidate validly nominated by a political party.

The judge consequently described Adebutu’s removal from the list as unlawful, unconstitutional and without legal effect.

He maintained that the authority to disqualify a candidate whose name had been submitted by a political party “resides with the Federal High Court or State High Court.”

The ruling followed a suit filed by the PDP and Adebutu after INEC omitted the former’s name from its final list of governorship candidates published on October 10, 2026.

Before considering the substantive issues, Justice Lifu dismissed INEC’s preliminary objection challenging the competence of the suit.

He held that the originating summons was validly signed by a senior counsel and contained the names of other lawyers in his law firm, making the process competent before the court.

In determining the substantive matter, the court examined whether INEC violated Adebutu’s right to fair hearing, whether it had the legal authority to disqualify him unilaterally and whether it could remove his name from the candidates’ list.

In his argument before the court, Adebutu said he participated in the 2019 Ogun governorship election and was also the PDP’s flagbearer in the 2023 contest.

He explained that he took part in the party’s primary election for the 2027 governorship poll and emerged as its candidate on May 24, 2026.

According to him, the PDP subsequently published his name on August 29, 2026, without any objection being raised against his nomination.

However, Adebutu said he was surprised to discover that his name was missing when INEC released the final list of candidates in October.

The plaintiffs further told the court that the PDP and its National Secretary wrote to the electoral commission on October 14, requesting a reversal of the decision, but INEC failed to act on their demand.

The party’s National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, who testified as the first prosecution witness, confirmed that Adebutu was a registered member of the PDP.

Bature told the court that Adebutu’s name was contained in the party’s membership register submitted to INEC on April 22, 2026, through a flash drive.

He said the register contained more than 30,000 members and that Adebutu was the first person to register with the party on February 24, 2026.

The witness maintained that Adebutu’s membership of the PDP had never been contested.

However, INEC’s witness, Mustapha Mohammed, a programme analyst with the commission, gave a different account.

Mohammed told the court that a search conducted before the publication of the final candidates’ list did not show Adebutu’s name in the PDP membership register.

He, however, confirmed that the name of Adebutu’s running mate was found in the register.

During cross-examination, the INEC official admitted that he was not the officer who received the flash drive from the PDP and could not independently verify its exact contents.

After reviewing the evidence, Justice Lifu held that INEC failed to establish that Adebutu’s name was absent from the membership register submitted by the party.

The judge also criticised the commission for failing to challenge the conduct of the May 24 primary election within the period stipulated by law.

He said, “As far as I know, no person filed any suit to challenge Adebutu 14 days after the conduct of the poll. It was baffling that INEC waited until August.”

Justice Lifu warned that allowing INEC to exercise powers outside its statutory mandate could create room for arbitrary disqualification of candidates, even shortly before an election.

He said, “If this is not resolved, there will be a day that INEC will disqualify a candidate a day to election. This must not be allowed. This would be an absurdity.”

Reiterating the limits of the commission’s authority, the judge stated, “INEC does not have the power to remove names or disqualify any candidate on its own. The power to disqualify a candidate after the name has been forwarded resides with the FHC or State high Court.”

He further emphasised the exclusive role of political parties in selecting their candidates, saying, “The power to nominate a candidate for an election exclusively belongs to a political party, and the exercise of that power is within a party.”

The judge added that if INEC had concerns about Adebutu’s eligibility to contest the election, the commission ought to have approached a court of competent jurisdiction rather than independently removing his name.

Consequently, Justice Lifu ordered INEC to correct the final list published on October 10, 2026, and include Adebutu as the PDP’s governorship candidate within 24 hours.

The court also declared that INEC could not validly announce the outcome of the 2027 Ogun governorship election without the participation of the plaintiffs.

Warning about the legal consequences of excluding them from the electoral process, the judge held that “the election shall be of no effect and unconstitutional.”