Ogun: INEC silent as court orders it to restore Adebutu’s name within 24hrs

By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has yet to react officially to a Federal High Court judgment directing it to publish Oladipupo Adebutu’s name as the Peoples Democratic Party PDP candidate for the 2027 Ogun governorship election, saying it only read about the ruling on social media. The Director of Voter Education and Publicity at INEC, Mrs Victoria Messi-Eta, said she read about the judgment in the media and would get a response from the commission’s legal department.

As of the time of filing this report, she had yet to revert. The National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Malam Mohammed Haruna, neither returned calls nor responded to messages sent to him on the matter. The commission’s silence came after Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered INEC on Friday to publish Adebutu’s name within 24 hours.

Delivering judgment, Justice Lifu held that INEC had no powers to unilaterally remove the name of a validly nominated candidate by a political party. He held that the commission’s action was unconstitutional, unlawful and of no effect. The judge said only the Federal High Court or the state high court had the power to declare a candidate invalid, not the commission.

He also held that INEC breached Adebutu’s right to fair hearing, and dismissed the commission’s preliminary objection, declaring the suit competent. The PDP and Adebutu filed the suit on Oct. 22 after his name was removed from the list of contestants for the Ogun governorship seat. INEC was the sole defendant. Their lawyer, Ahmed Raji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), sought 11 reliefs, including an order setting aside the commission’s decision to omit, remove or refuse to publish Adebutu’s name in the final list of candidates published on Oct. 10, for denial of fair hearing and violation of Sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act, 2026.

They also asked the court to compel “the defendant to, within twenty-four (24) hours of the order/orders of this honourable court, include and/or publish the name of the 2nd plaintiff as the 1st plaintiff’s governorship candidate for Ogun State in the forthcoming 2027 General Election.”