The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suffered a setback in its bid to nullify the last local government elections in Kwara State after the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed its suit challenging the polls.
Justice Peter Lifu dismissed the case after holding that the PDP had participated in the elections, challenged the results through election petitions and failed to appeal the decisions before returning to the Federal High Court with an amended case.
The judge ruled that the amendment had fundamentally changed the nature of the original suit from a pre-election action into a post-election challenge.
“The amendment fundamentally altered the character of the action,” Justice Lifu held.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1061/2024, was instituted against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC).
The PDP had initially sought to stop KWASIEC from conducting the local government elections and prevent INEC from releasing the voters’ register to the state electoral commission.
However, the elections went ahead while the case was pending before the court.
The party subsequently participated in the polls and filed about 24 petitions challenging the results. According to the judgment, all the petitions were dismissed, while the PDP did not appeal any of the decisions.
Following the unsuccessful petitions, the party sought to amend its Federal High Court case to introduce a relief seeking the nullification of the local government elections.
Court Rejects PDP’s Legal Route
Justice Lifu rejected the move, holding that the Federal High Court could not assume the powers of an election tribunal through an amendment to an existing suit.
“The court lacked jurisdiction to start as an election tribunal,” the judge ruled.
The court also held that the amended claim had become statute-barred, creating another legal obstacle to the PDP’s case.
“Having been so reconstituted, the suit was caught by the statutory limitation period,” Justice Lifu held.
The judge further upheld the defendants’ preliminary objection that the PDP’s continued pursuit of the matter amounted to an abuse of court process.
According to the court, the party had already chosen the election petition route after participating in the local government polls and could not subsequently seek substantially the same relief through another legal proceeding.
“The plaintiff voluntarily participated in the said elections, presented election petitions, and failed in all of them,” the court held.
Justice Lifu said the PDP could not use an amended originating summons to pursue remedies that were no longer available to it after the conclusion of its election petitions.
“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.
He added that such a move amounted to an attempt to re-litigate matters through a different legal route that ought to have been addressed before the appropriate election tribunals.
The Federal High Court consequently dismissed the PDP’s suit, leaving the party’s attempt to nullify the Kwara State local government elections unsuccessful.
