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 courtroom dominated that the occasion couldn’t convert an earlier pre-election go well with right into a recent problem to the result of the polls.

Justice Peter Lifu, in a judgment on the go well with 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 essentially 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 occasion had initially requested the courtroom 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 collaborating within the train.

The occasion later challenged the outcomes by 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 embrace a aid asking the courtroom 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 an modification to an present go well with 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 treatments 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 result of that course of and search considerably the identical aid by one other continuing.

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

The courtroom additionally discovered that the amended case had change into statute-barred, which means that the PDP may 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 courtroom course of.

He stated permitting the occasion 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 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.