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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja.
The Labour Party (LP) won a major victory yesterday as the Abuja division of the Federal High Court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the nomination of candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in 24 States of the Federation for the purpose of the forthcoming general elections.
The court ordered that the electoral body accept the list of the candidates in the 24 states either manually or through its electronic nomination portal.
Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo in his judgments in different 24 suits brought before him by Labour Party held that INEC violated sections 31, 33 and 36 of the Electoral Act 2022 in rejecting the Labour Party’s candidates in the affected States on the ground of non functional of its nomination portal.
The 24 states affected by the court order are Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Lagos, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi and Ekiti States. The rest are Katsina, Bayelsa, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa and Cross River States among others.
The Labour Party had last year November conducted substitution nomination for its candidates who withdrew from the 2023 general elections in the affected states.
The withdrawals were communicated to INEC by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party along with notification of October 27 date to conduct substitution nomination primary elections.
