A court in Abuja has fixed May 30 for judgment in the suit instituted by a political association, Democratic Peoples Congress (DPC) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the commission’s refusal to register it as a political party.
At the resumed hearing of the suit at the Federal High Court on Wednesday presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, a lawyer representing the DPC, Ezekiel Ofou, told the court that the association had fulfilled all requirements necessary for it to be registered as a political party and urged the court to compel INEC to register them.
Lawyer to the electoral body, Ibrahim Bawa, in his submission insisted that the suit was premature as the process of registering the association as political party was on-going when the plaintiffs approached the court.
“The party failed to comply with constitutional requirement, requesting them to submit the relevant documents. they only did that on December 11 and on December 12, they went to court to say we failed to register them. We need to be given the time stipulated by the Electoral Act. The Act says we must be given 30 days,” Mr Bawa said.
The DPC had approached the court asking it to determine, whether it was right for INEC in the conduct of its statutory and constitutional duty to neglect, refuse and fail to register the plaintiffs’ association as a political party, having satisfied all requirements for registration as stipulated by the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
The political association is also seeking for a declaration that the association is statutorily qualified for registration as a political party in line with section 78 (4) of the Electoral Act.
They also sought for an order of the court directing the defendant to formally issue the plaintiffs a certificate of registration of their association as a political party.
