Alex Enumah in Abuja
The All Democratic Alliance (ADA), has threatened to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, SAN, over the refusal of the commission to grant it the Access Code for uploading its details ahead of the 2027 general election.
Protem National Secretary of the ADA, Aminu Ahmed, claimed the refusal of the electoral umpire to comply with the order of court has stalled the process of uploading the list of party officials, office addresses, names of administrative staff and other details as required by the INEC Guidelines and Regulation, to enable them complete the registration process and be issued with a certificate of registration as a political party.
In a statement, Ahmed, disclosed that the association demanded that INEC complies with the directive of the Federal High Court, which ordered the commission to issue it with the access code for the registration as a political party.
According to the Protem National Secretary, ADA was one of the eight political associations pre-qualified by INEC to be registered as a political party.
While issuing a final demand to the INEC Chairman to release the Access Code immediately, in line with the court’s order, the association gave a further deadline of 48 hours from August 10, 2026, to comply with the court order, following which it would initiate contempt proceedings against the INEC Chairman, the Director, Department of Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) and other relevant officers.
“Based on the order of the court to issue an Access Code to us within 72 hours from the date of the court’s judgment, INEC was supposed to have issued the Access Code latest by July 2, 2026. INEC has now been in continuous defiance of a valid court order for a period of 39 days today and counting.
“The ADA views this deliberate non-compliance as a direct assault on the rule of law and a calculated attempt to stall the registration of our political association into a political party and deny our teeming members and supporters the opportunity to participate in the electoral process.
“We hold the INEC Chairman and the Director Department of Election and Party Monitoring (EPM), personally responsible for this continuing obstruction, which is a clear case of contempt of court.”