Court fixes Friday for judgment in PDP, Adebutu’s suit against INEC
The Federal High Court in Abuja is scheduled to deliver a judgment on Friday regarding a lawsuit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The suit seeks to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of its candidate, Oladipupo Adebutu, for the 2027 Ogun governorship election.
Justice Peter Lifu set the date following the conclusion of witness testimonies and the adoption of processes by both parties in the case, which is identified as FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the PDP and Adebutu initiated the lawsuit on October 22 after Adebutu’s name was removed from the list of candidates for the governorship seat in Ogun.
The PDP and Adebutu’s legal representative, Ahmed Raji, SAN, named INEC as the sole defendant in their suit. The plaintiffs have presented six questions for determination and are seeking a total of 11 reliefs from the court.
Among their requests, they seek to overturn INEC’s decision to exclude Adebutu’s name from the final list of candidates published on October 10. They argue that this omission constitutes a denial of a fair hearing and violates the provisions of Sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act, 2026. They also ask the court to mandate INEC to include and publish Adebutu’s name as the PDP’s governorship candidate for the upcoming 2027 General Election within 24 hours of the court’s order.
In a counter-affidavit, Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Programme Analyst in INEC’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department, stated that Adebutu’s name was not found in the register of PDP members previously submitted to the commission. According to INEC, the only name from the party found in the register belonged to Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, the PDP’s deputy governorship candidate in Ogun.
During the most recent hearing on November 5, witnesses for both sides provided testimony regarding their claims. Umar Bature, the PDP National Organising Secretary, testified that Adebutu’s name was included in the flash drive submitted to INEC containing all the names of the party’s candidates. Bature noted a discrepancy between the color of the flash drive brought to court by INEC and the silver flash drive that the PDP submitted to the commission.
Bature further emphasized that the PDP had provided a soft copy of its candidate list in accordance with the Electoral Act and guidelines issued by INEC. However, in his testimony, Mohammed maintained that Adebutu’s name was not included in the list submitted by the PDP.
Following the testimonies, Justice Lifu scheduled the judgment for November 13.
