By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA— The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) as a political party.

The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, equally ordered the electoral body to release its access code to the Akin Ricketts-led leadership of the association within 72 hours.

It will be recalled that INEC had, in October 2025, revealed that ADA was among 14 pre-qualified associations that applied to be registered as political parties, having completed the upload of all required information and documentation.

Though the commission okayed the association and seven others for the next stage of the registration process, ADA approached the court alleging that its access code was wrongly released to one Umar Ardo, who is neither its Pro-tem National Chairman nor its Secretary.

It urged the court to compel INEC to issue to the plaintiff the access code to enable the association to upload the necessary information and documents for the registration of ADA as a political party.

The association also prayed the court to declare that INEC was in violation of the extant laws when it issued the access code to the second defendant, Ardo.

More so, the plaintiff urged the court to declare that the information uploaded onto INEC’s portal by the wrong person — Ardo — on behalf of ADA was in violation of the extant laws, as it was at variance with the information in the plaintiff’s letter of intent, and should therefore be declared illegal, unlawful, null and void and of no effect.

The plaintiff asked the court to order INEC to register its association as a political party and to issue a certificate of registration to it, as well as an order directing INEC to extend the deadlines of May 10, 2026, and May 30, 2026, for the submission of its digital register of members and the submission of candidates, respectively, to the electoral body.

While granting the reliefs, Justice Lifu faulted INEC for releasing its access code to Ardo, declaring the action illegal, wrongful, null and void.

He ordered INEC to open its portal for a period of one week to enable the plaintiff to upload necessary documents, including its membership register, as required by law.

Justice Lifu nullified all actions previously taken on behalf of the association by Ardo.

Although the plaintiff, Ricketts, requested 96 hours for INEC to generate and hand him the access code, Justice Lifu granted only 72 hours.

The vice presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has urged the teaming supporters of the party, particularly those affiliated with the Obident and Kwankwasiyya movements, to remain calm and await further action from the party.

Kwankwaso, a former presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, made this statement during an interview that was posted on X on Wednesday.

DAILY POST reported that a ruling delivered by Justice Isa H. Dashen at the Lokoja Judicial Division effectively overturned the court’s earlier judgment from December 10, 2025, which had mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register the NDC.

The court explained that the previous ruling was annulled due to its impact on the legal rights of the Peace Movement Party, which asserted ownership of the logo utilized by the NDC but was not included as a party in the initial lawsuit.

The National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, stated on Saturday that the commission is awaiting the official documentation before finalizing its response.

Speaking, Kwankwaso expressed disappointment that the court would base its decision on a lawsuit from a non-existent entity, the Peace Movement Party, to invalidate its prior ruling that required INEC to register the NDC.

“Anyone who examines the logo submitted to INEC[by the NDC] which features a victory sign with fingers, will see that it is entirely distinct from that of the APC. Therefore, as stipulated by law and the Constitution, the members of the NDC approached the High Court in Lokoja last December, and the court’s ruling, as anticipated, was that INEC should register the party since there was no significant similarity that would warrant the rejection of the application.

“From the end of December to date is six months. INEC did not appeal[the judgement] In the contrary, they decided to register the party. Meaning they did the right thing, and INEC has been attending all the programmes at all levels, ranging from the congresses to the national convention, and even the special convention that we held recently were all witnessed by INEC. 

“To our disappointment, we only heard that a group that applied for registration, also with INEC, which was rejected, went to the same court to the same judge and requested that our party be deregistered, and it was a very huge shocker to us as members, and even other well-meaning political parties, brothers and sisters, within and outside the country. It was a very big shock that the same judge in the same court decided to reverse himself because of some people who are not representing any registered party and who are not representing any registered or known organization in this country, just from the blues the same judge decided to reverse himself.

“As law-abiding people in this country, what we’ve decided, of course, is to go to court as soon as possible. I believe this coming Monday to make sure that the stakeholders are being asked to stay any action, and of course appeal so that the registration will be restored 

“So this is the opportunity to appeal to our supporters across the country and beyond, especially the young men and women who are in the NDC, our supporters in Kwankwasiyya and Obidient across the country to wait because we believe that good reason will prevail.”

The presidential running mate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Rotimi Amaechi, has accused politicians of stealing result sheets at unit level during polls.

Amaechi warned that politicians steal result sheets at the risk of the lives of ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Addressing a group of youths, the former Rivers State governor said: “On the day of election in your Ward and in your Unit, you  finish voting, you stand for the counting. I have been a politician all my life, I have never worked anywhere before.

“I left university in 1987 and joined politics that same year, so you won’t teach me, unit level is where they vote.

“Politicians steal result sheets at the unit level risking the life of the INEC adhoc officer. As he comes, show us the result sheet or you are not going because politicians don’t care about your life, some parents must stop their children who want to be adhoc staff.”

He charged Nigerians to always insist on their votes being counted at the polling units during elections.

He added: “If there is a result sheet, we will queue up and when they finish counting, if you don’t upload it you are not going

“If we finish the election and there are one million persons in front of INEC and trust me if you do all these, ADC can mobilize one million people to INEC office.

“Don’t forget that there is an election that would have been rigged in Nigeria, the election that made Kwankwaso governor, how many of you remember that, when they looked outside and saw 500 persons what did they do, they announced.”

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