A federal high court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Odo Lifu, has dismissed a suit that sought to stop the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) from conducting the local government elections in Kwara State.
According to the judgment delivered on Tuesday, Justice Lifu also ruled that the suit was found to be statute-barred and an abuse of the process of the Court.
The Suit with No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1061/2024 has the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the plaintiff and was represented by Mayor Eze.
The defendants are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), KWASIEC represented by B.O. Elias and the Attorney-General of Kwara State represented by I.A. Olorundare (Senior State Counsel), while Special Adviser to the Governor of Kwara State on Legal Matters, Sambo Muritala, was an observer.
The plaintiff commenced the action by originating summons, seeking, inter alia, an order of the court restraining KWASIEC from conducting the last LG elections in Kwara State, and an order restraining INEC from furnishing KWASIEC with the Voters’ Register for that purpose.
The court initially made an order for the maintenance of the status quo, which was subsequently vacated.
In consequence, the local government elections were conducted while the substantive suit was still pending.
The plaintiff participated fully in the electoral process and, thereafter, filed some twenty-four (24) election petitions. All the petitions were dismissed, and no appeal was lodged against any of the decisions.
The plaintiff subsequently applied to amend its originating summons to seek an order nullifying the said elections.
But the court held that the amendment fundamentally altered the character of the action. It noted that the suit, which was originally a pre-election matter, was by virtue of the amendment transformed into a post-election claim which was supposed to be an election petition, and this court lacked jurisdiction to start as an election tribunal.
It added that, having been so reconstituted, the suit was caught by the statutory limitation period, had no power as an electoral tribunal and was equally statute-barred, and the court so held.
The Court further upheld the preliminary objection of the defendants that the suit constituted an abuse of the process of the court.
It noted that the plaintiff had voluntarily participated in the local government elections, presented election petitions, and failed in all of them.
According to it, it was impermissible for the plaintiff to return to this court, by way of an amended originating summons, to seek reliefs which it could no longer obtain through the election petition process.
It added that such conduct amounted to an attempt to re-litigate, by a different route, matters that ought to have been ventilated exclusively before the appropriate election tribunals.
