The Court reserves judgment on INEC appeals on the 2027 electoral guidelines

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday reserved its decision in two separate appeals on the timetable for the conduct of the 2027 elections published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The decision was made by the Chief Justice, Adebukola Bankole, who headed the panel of appellate judges that heard the appeal.

The date of the sentence, according to her, will be communicated to the parties in the appeal.

Two political parties, the Youth Party of Nigeria (YPN) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), had approached two Federal High Courts in Abuja to quash the calendar published by INEC for the 2027 elections.

While Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court granted the reliefs sought in the case by the YPN and annulled INEC’s electoral guidelines, Justice James Omotosho, in the case brought by the SDP, granted some reliefs in favor of the party and others in favor of the electoral umpire.

Not satisfied with the two rulings, INEC approached the Court of Appeal to quash the rulings of Justice Umar and part of the ruling of Justice Omotosho, which limited INEC’s power regarding the conduct of elections.

During the hearing of the appeals, Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, led two other SANs, from INEC, to discuss the appeals.

The second appeal was filed by the SDP with a ruling by Justice James Omotosho, who granted some relief to the SDP and others also to INEC.

Before the main appeal was heard, Dr Izinyon filed three applications, one of which urged the court to close the door on YPN on the basis that the party had failed to file its defendant brief after serving the appellant’s briefs five days earlier.

YPN lawyer Akinwale Irokosun, when asked by the commission whether the party had submitted any response to the motion, responded in the negative.

The lead lawyer subsequently moved his application and the court reserved the right to deliver the judgment along with the main appeal.