Court orders INEC to publish Adebutu as Ogun PDP candidate

The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission to publish Ladi Adebutu as the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2027 Ogun State governorship election within 24 hours of its November 13 ruling. Justice Peter Lifu said INEC had acted beyond its powers by excluding a candidate nominated by a political party. The election is scheduled for February 6, 2027.

The order followed a suit by Adebutu and the PDP challenging his omission from INEC’s final candidate list. The judge declared the exclusion unlawful and said the commission could not disqualify a party’s duly nominated candidate without a court order. He held that nominating candidates was the responsibility of political parties, while INEC’s role in publishing their names was administrative.

The ruling addressed a dispute over the membership register and electronic files the PDP submitted to INEC. In a court filing, the commission said searches of the register and two flash drives did not find Adebutu’s name. INEC’s ICT analyst, Mustapha Mohammed, said the search found the name of the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, but not Adebutu’s....