By John Azu
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to generate and release the access code for the registration of the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) to the leadership of the association led by its protem National Chairman, Akin Ricket.
Delivering judgment on Monday, Justice Peter Lifu directed INEC to release the access code to the association’s protem secretary within 72 hours.
The judge held that the commission acted unlawfully when it issued the access code to Umar Ardo, who was not the recognised protem secretary of the association.
Justice Lifu consequently declared INEC’s action “illegal, wrongful, null and void.”
The court further ordered the electoral commission to reopen its registration portal for one week to enable the plaintiff upload all required documents, including the association’s membership register, in compliance with the provisions of the law.
Ricket, through his counsel, Stephen Atabo, had instituted the suit against INEC over its refusal to issue him the access code required to upload the information and documents necessary for the registration of ADA as a political party.
In the suit, the ADA leadership sought “a 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 protem secretary of the association, instead of the plaintiff.”
The plaintiff also asked the court to declare “that the information uploaded into INEC’s portal by a wrongful person, Umar Ardo, on behalf of ADA, was in violation of the extant laws, as it was at variance with the information contained in the plaintiff’s letter of intent and should therefore be declared illegal, unlawful, null and void, and of no effect.”
In its judgment, the court granted the key reliefs sought by the plaintiff, including directing INEC to release the access code to the recognised leadership of the association and reopen its portal to facilitate the completion of the party registration process.