PDP SUFFERS LEGAL SETBACKS AS BID TO CANCEL KWARA LG POLLS FAILS
The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to cancel the last local government elections in Kwara State.
Justice Peter Lifu ruled that the PDP could not alter its case after voluntarily participating in the elections and failing to appeal the dismissal of its 24 election petitions.
The judge held that the party’s amended claim fundamentally altered the character of the action, trying to turn a pre-election suit into a post-election challenge.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1061/2024, was originally filed against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) to stop the conduct of the polls.
However, the elections proceeded while the case was pending, and the PDP chose to participate rather than boycotted the process.
Following the elections, the PDP filed numerous petitions challenging the results, all of which were dismissed by the election tribunal.
Rather than appealing those tribunal decisions, the PDP returned to the Federal High Court to amend its original suit to ask for a total nullification of the elections.
Justice Lifu rejected this approach, stating that the Federal High Court lacks the jurisdiction to act as an election tribunal through an amended suit.
Furthermore, the court ruled that the reconstituted claim was statute-barred as it fell outside the legally permitted statutory limitation period.
The judge concluded that the PDP’s legal strategy amounted to an abuse of court process by attempting to re-litigate matters that belonged exclusively to the election tribunals.
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