The Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled Friday to deliver judgment in a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognise Oladipupo Adebutu as its candidate for the 2027 Ogun State governorship election.
Justice Peter Lifu fixed the date after the parties presented their witnesses and adopted their final written addresses in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026.
The PDP and Adebutu filed the case on October 22 following the omission of the former governorship candidate’s name from INEC’s final list of contestants published on October 10.
The plaintiffs, represented by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ahmed Raji, sued INEC as the sole defendant and sought six questions for determination and 11 reliefs.
They asked the court to set aside INEC’s decision to exclude Adebutu’s name, arguing that the action violated his right to fair hearing and breached Sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act 2026.
Among their requests, the plaintiffs sought an order compelling the commission to, within 24 hours, include Adebutu’s name as the PDP governorship candidate in Ogun State for the 2027 election.
INEC, however, maintained that Adebutu’s name was not contained in the register of party members submitted to the commission by the PDP.
In a counter-affidavit deposed to by Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Programme Analyst in INEC’s Information and Communication Technology Department, the commission said it found only the name of the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register.
At the November 5 hearing, both parties presented witnesses to support their respective positions.
Testifying for the PDP, the party’s National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, told the court that Adebutu’s name was included in the flash drive containing the list of its candidates submitted to INEC.
“The name of Adebutu was included in the flash drive submitted to INEC, which contained all the names of our candidates,” Bature told the court.
Led in evidence by Raji, Bature also disputed the colour of the flash drive presented by INEC, insisting that the device submitted by the party was silver.
“The flash drive submitted to the commission was silver in colour,” he said.
He further maintained that the PDP submitted only an electronic copy of its candidates’ list through the flash drive, in accordance with the Electoral Act and Paragraph 4(3) of Part I of INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties 2026.
However, Mohammed, who testified for INEC, maintained that Adebutu’s name was missing from the list submitted by the PDP.
“Adebutu’s name was not in the list of candidates submitted to the commission,” the INEC witness told the court.
Mohammed also insisted that the PDP submitted both hard and electronic copies of its candidates’ list to the commission.
The court is expected to determine whether INEC was justified in excluding Adebutu’s name from the final list of candidates.
Court fixes Friday to rule on PDP suit seeking inclusion of Adebutu in Ogun governorship race