Court rejects PDP’s bid to nullify LG elections – Daily Trust

The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) try to nullify the September 2024 native authorities elections in Kwara State.

The court docket dominated that the social gathering couldn’t convert an earlier pre-election swimsuit right into a recent problem to the end result of the polls.

Justice Peter Lifu, in a judgment on the swimsuit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1061/2024, held that the PDP had already participated within the election, pursued its grievances earlier than the suitable election petition tribunals and failed to attraction the selections earlier than returning to the Federal High Court.

The choose stated the modification sought by the PDP basically modified the character of the unique case.

“The amendment fundamentally altered the character of the action,” Justice Lifu held.

Daily Trust stories that the case had its roots within the PDP’s authorized effort to cease the September 21, 2024 council elections carried out by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC).

The social gathering had initially requested the court docket to restrain KWASIEC from conducting the elections and forestall the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the nationwide voters’ register to the state electoral physique.

Justice Lifu had in July 2024 granted an interim order restraining INEC from releasing the register to KWASIEC, however the order was subsequently vacated earlier than the election.

The elections consequently went forward throughout the state on September 21, 2024, with the PDP participating within the train.

The social gathering later challenged the outcomes by way of about 24 election petitions, in accordance to the judgment, however all of the petitions have been dismissed and no attraction was lodged towards the selections.

The authorized setback adopted when the PDP returned to the Federal High Court and sought to amend its originating summons to embody a aid asking the court docket to nullify the native authorities elections.

It was this transfer that Justice Lifu rejected, holding that the modification successfully remodeled the unique case from a pre-election dispute right into a post-election problem.

According to the choose, such a problem belonged to the election petition course of and couldn’t be launched by way of an modification to an current swimsuit earlier than the Federal High Court.

“The court lacked jurisdiction to start as an election tribunal,” he dominated.

The judgment drew a distinction between the authorized cures out there earlier than an election and people out there after an election has been carried out.

Justice Lifu held that having participated within the polls and subsequently pursued election petitions, the PDP couldn’t abandon the end result of that course of and search considerably the identical aid by way of one other continuing.

“The plaintiff voluntarily participated in the said elections, presented election petitions, and failed in all of them,” the court docket held.

The court docket additionally discovered that the amended case had change into statute-barred, which means that the PDP may now not pursue the aid it launched after the expiration of the relevant statutory interval.

“Having been so reconstituted, the suit was caught by the statutory limitation period,” Justice Lifu held.

The choose additional upheld the preliminary objection of the defendants that the PDP’s continued pursuit of the matter constituted an abuse of court docket course of.

He stated permitting the social gathering to return to the Federal High Court after the conclusion of its election petitions would quantity to utilizing one other judicial course of to relitigate points that ought to have been decided by way of the prescribed electoral litigation process.

“It was impermissible for the plaintiff to return, by way of an amended originating summons, to seek reliefs which it could no longer obtain through the election petition process,” Justice Lifu held.