It was with effusive jubilations, backslapping and victory songs that members of the Labour Party in Ogun State celebrated the victory of the party in court today as executives of the party said the judgment had returned the party to political reckoning in the state.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to list all the names of the candidates of the Labour Party (LP), for the 2023 national and State Assembly seats.
Justice Adetayo Aluko in a judgement, held that the Electoral Act, 2022 is superior to INEC guidelines on elections.
Justice Aluko stated further that Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2022 allows parties to still submit names of candidates that emerge from substitution primaries not later than 90 days before the election.
He said that the electoral umpire, by its own manuals, cannot limit the time provided for by the Electoral Act.
It could be recalled that the INEC, has failed to list the candidates of Labour Party for the National and State Assembly seats for what the electoral umpire termed as failure from the Party to submit any name of the candidate for the 26 House of Assembly seats, Three Senatorial seat and Nine House of Representatives.
He said “from the records available to us, Labour Party did not submit that of the national and House of Assembly candidates name.”
The commission had given July 15 for the submission of the list of candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections and August 12 for candidates for governorship and state’s House of Assemblies polls.
But the party had sued INEC as sole respondent in the suit.
In the matter filed by their Counsel Monday Mawah, LP, the applicants had prayed the court to make an order directing INEC to allow the party to list all the names of all applicants for 2023 State and national assembly elections.
They urged the court to declare that by virtue of Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2022, INEC had no power to reject the name of its candidate.
The Court therefore ordered that all the candidates submitted by the Party should be uploaded in the INEC website
Mawah, the LP counsel greeted the judgment with joy, saying that it had restored the dignity of the party executives, who its national headquarters had written off as not serious.
