A Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified the revised timetable and schedule of activities issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 general elections, effectively dismantling a framework critics said was designed to curb political defections.
Justice Mohammed Umar held that INEC lacked the statutory authority to fix or prescribe timeframes within which political parties must conduct their primaries for candidate nomination, ruling that the commission’s imposed deadlines were “inconsistent with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026.
“The judgment, obtained by Daily Trust, arose from a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2026, filed by the Youth Party with INEC as sole defendant. Counsel J. O. Olotu had sought six reliefs on behalf of the plaintiff — all of which the court granted.
Under INEC’s now-voided timetable, parties were required to submit membership lists by May 10, 2026, with all primaries concluded by May 31.
The commission had also mandated 21 days’ notice before monitoring any primary exercise, and restricted eligibility to only those whose names appeared on registers submitted prior to the primaries.
With the judgment, political parties now have until September 2026 to submit updated membership registers, a development that widens the door for members seeking to switch parties or make other membership changes before the 2027 polls.
The plaintiff had argued before the court that INEC’s rigid timetable was deliberately structured to prevent aspirants who lost in party primaries from defecting to other parties and contesting for the same offices, a practice commonly deployed in Nigerian electoral politics.
