The Court of Appeal in Abuja has officially approved the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines for the upcoming 2027 general elections. In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the panel overturned a May 20 decision from the Federal High Court that had previously invalidated these regulations.
Justice Adebukola Banjoko, who authored the lead judgment, stated that the Youth Party (YP) had no legal standing to challenge INEC. The court found that the YP failed to demonstrate how the specific guidelines negatively impacted their primary elections or the candidate nomination process. Furthermore, the three-member panel determined that the original ruling by Justice Mohammed Garba Umar was flawed and resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
INEC had successfully argued that the initial lawsuit was merely hypothetical and academic. Dr. Alex Izinyom, representing the commission, urged the appellate court to set aside the lower court’s decision, asserting that the high court had ignored critical jurisdictional issues and denied INEC a fair hearing.
