The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking the registration of the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) as a political party.
The case was instituted by promoters of the association led by Umar Ardo, who asked the court to compel INEC to recognise and register ADA under the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
The plaintiffs argued that the electoral commission failed to act on their application within the legally stipulated timeframe and therefore should treat the association as duly registered.
However, delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Emeka Nwite ruled that the suit was incompetent and lacked sufficient credible evidence to support the claims made by the plaintiffs.
The judge upheld preliminary objections raised by Chief Akin Ricketts and Aminu Ahmed, who argued that the case was initiated through the wrong legal procedure.
According to the court, the issues raised involved disputed facts and allegations that required oral evidence and witness examination, making the use of an originating summons inappropriate.
Justice Nwite held that the matter ought to have been commenced through a writ of summons to allow witnesses to testify and be cross-examined before the court could properly determine the issues.
Based on the procedural defect, the court struck out the suit.
Despite this finding, the judge also examined the substantive claims presented by the plaintiffs and concluded that they failed to provide convincing evidence to support their arguments.
The court rejected the plaintiffs’ reliance on newspaper publications as proof that Chief Ricketts had defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), stating that media reports alone could not establish the truth of such claims.
Justice Nwite further noted that no documentary evidence, including membership records, payment receipts, or party registration documents, was presented to confirm Ricketts’ alleged membership of the ADC.
The court also agreed with INEC that the association failed to satisfy certain constitutional and electoral requirements necessary for political party registration.
Part of the court’s concerns included inconsistencies in the names of interim national officers submitted to INEC compared with details contained in earlier correspondence from the association.
At the conclusion of the ruling, the court held that the plaintiffs failed to establish their claims with credible evidence and dismissed the suit for lacking merit.
