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By Victor Osula, Abuja
The Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that the right of an association to apply for registration as a political party in Nigeria is not absolute, holding that prospective political parties must satisfy the requirements of the Constitution, electoral law and applicable guidelines before they can be recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Justice James Omotosho made the ruling in a ruling on a suit brought by Jyde Adelakun, a member of the All Allies Alliance (AAA), challenging INEC’s failure to register the association as a political party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1049/2026, the suit sought to compel INEC to register AAA or recognize it as automatically registered by operation of law.
The appellant had argued that INEC had failed to notify the association in writing of any failure to comply with the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act within the 90-day period prescribed by section 75(4) of the Electoral Act 2022.
According to the appellant, the 90-day period expired on 21 May 2026, without INEC notifying the AAA of any deficiency in his application.
Therefore, he asked the court to declare that the AAA was legally deemed to be registered as a political party and should be included among the political parties eligible to participate in the 2027 general elections and other electoral processes.
The applicant also sought an order compelling INEC to immediately register or recognize AAA as a political party and a perpetual injunction restraining the commission from excluding, impeding or otherwise hindering its participation in the 2027 elections.
He also sought ₦50 million in exemplary, general and aggravated damages for what he described as violations of his and the association’s members’ fundamental rights.
INEC opposed the suit, arguing that the AAA had not met the requirements for registration as a political party.
The Electoral Commission alleged that the association had not provided an address in Abuja as required under section 222 of the Constitution and did not have a pro tempore secretary.
INEC further argued that the subsequent promulgation of the Electoral Law 2026 and changes to the 2027 electoral calendar had affected the validity of the plaintiff’s claim.
Justice Omotosho, however, rejected this aspect of INEC’s argument. The judge held that the law applicable to the dispute was the Electoral Act 2022 because that was the law in force at the time the cause of action arose.
He noted that there was no official timetable for the 2027 general elections when the AAA submitted its application and that INEC only announced its timetable later.
The commission initially set the presidential and National Assembly elections for February 20, 2027, before reviewing the calendar and bringing the elections forward to January 16, 2027.
Justice Omotosho found that INEC could not rely on a timetable introduced after the appeal to dismiss the applicant’s claim.
“The defendant, having made its calendar public after the applicant applied to be registered as a political party, cannot look back to say that, because of its changed calendar, the application was made less than 12 months before the general election,” the judge found.
He added that INEC could not take any steps, backtrack and subsequently avail itself of such revocation to the detriment of the appellant.
“This cannot be the position of the law. The defendant cannot take action, retrace his steps and then expect to benefit from that action to the detriment of another.”
The Court therefore held that the subsequent timetable did not invalidate the AAA’s case and that the case had been properly presented to it.
However, the association suffered a decisive setback when the court assessed whether it had actually met the registration requirements.
Justice Omotosho held that the constitutional right to form or belong to a political association does not automatically entitle such association to be registered as a political party.
“An association applying for registration of a party must satisfy the conditions prescribed by law before INEC can be forced to recognize it,” the court said, adding that INEC was justified in refusing to register AAA because the association had not met the applicable requirements.
A key issue was the nature of the correspondence on which the AAA relied in its application for registration.
Justice Omotosho said the contents of the association’s letter to INEC “do not really appear to me to be a letter of intent to be registered as a political party”.
Rather, the judge said, the correspondence appeared to be a request for INEC guidelines and regulations for the registration of a political party.
The court further found that even if the letter had been treated as a letter of intent, it would still not have complied with the applicable guidelines.
“For the sake of argument, even assuming that the letter is a letter of intent, it still does not comply with the Guidelines,” the judge found.
Accordingly, the court rejected his request for an order compelling INEC to register or recognize him as a political party, as well as his request that the commission include AAA among the parties qualified to contest the 2027 general elections.
The claim for damages of ₦50 million and the request for perpetual injunction against INEC were also not granted.
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