Court Upholds Exclusion of Labour Party Candidates from FCT Area Council Elections

The Federal High Court in Abuja has upheld the exclusion of Labour Party (LP) candidates from the forthcoming Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Justice Peter Lifu declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept or publish the list of candidates submitted by the LP for the election scheduled for February 21.

The court dismissed the suit filed by the party and its candidates, in which they challenged INEC’s decision to omit their names from the final list of contestants. The plaintiffs argued that INEC unlawfully excluded their duly nominated candidates when it published the final list in September 2025. They also claimed the commission failed to include the party’s logo among those cleared to participate in the poll.

The LP told the court that it had written to INEC in September and again in October 2025 to protest the alleged exclusion, but received no response. The party maintained that unless the court intervened, it would be unfairly prevented from fielding candidates in the FCT election.

In his ruling, Justice Lifu held that the matter qualified as a pre-election dispute under the 1999 Constitution. He noted that while the suit was filed on October 7, 2025, the cause of action arose on October 22, 2025, when the alleged exclusion became effective.

The court ruled that the Constitution requires pre-election matters to be filed within 14 days of the cause of action. Since the case was not brought within the stipulated period, the court held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain it. The suit was therefore declared statute-barred.

Justice Lifu also observed that a similar case involving the same parties was pending before a High Court in Nasarawa State, which he said created the impression of forum shopping. On these grounds, the court dismissed the suit and refused all the reliefs sought against INEC.

The dispute is linked to the prolonged leadership crisis within the Labour Party, which reportedly influenced INEC’s decision not to recognise the candidate lists submitted by the party’s rival factions for the FCT poll.

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