Candidates in next year’s elections are awaiting the official position of the Independent National Electoral Commission on the effect of the Supreme Court’s restoration of sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026.
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The commission is expected to address the implications of the judgment at a press conference scheduled for Tuesday, 6 October, in Abuja.
Sources at the commission said a team of its lawyers and its management had been reviewing the judgment. “I know that a team of the commission’s lawyers and the management has been reviewing the judgment,” one source said. “Since we have a world press conference on Tuesday, the chairman may speak on it extensively.”
The same source said the commission was reviewing the membership registers submitted by the political parties in line with the Act, and that candidates whose names were not in the registers 21 days before the primaries may be excluded from the election.
The commission is reported to have been inundated with enquiries from candidates, parties and other interests seeking to know who is affected by the decision.
Section 77(4) provides that each political party shall make its membership register available to the commission not later than 21 days before the date fixed for party primaries, congresses or conventions.
Subsection (5) provides that only members whose names are contained in the register shall be eligible to vote and be voted for in party primaries, congresses and conventions. The section also bars parties from using “any other register for party primaries, congresses and conventions except the register submitted to the Commission,” and provides that “a party that fails to submit the membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate for that election.”
The Gombe Judgment
Tension within the parties has been heightened by the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Gombe, which voided the All Progressives Congress primary that produced the former Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ali Isa JC.
Honourable Justice Vera E. Ibrahim held that his participation in the primary was invalid, unlawful, null and void for non-compliance with section 77, and barred him from participating in a fresh primary to be conducted within 30 days.
According to the account of the judgment, the court held that his name was not established to be in the register submitted to the commission at least 21 days before the primary.
His membership card shows that he formally joined the party on 20 April 2026, while the submission of membership registers to the commission closed on 10 May. The primary that produced him as candidate for the Balanga/Billiri Federal Constituency took place on 16 May, which the report describes as about 26 days after he joined, although the court is also reported to have found that he joined 16 days before the primary.
The Rivers Candidacy
Supporters of the party’s governorship candidate in Rivers State, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, whose position rivals say may be affected, insist that his candidacy is safe.
The Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners had asked the commission to disqualify him on the ground that his name was not on the register submitted to it. His loyalists, including the Progressive Voices Network, rejected the call.
“Contrary to their erroneous assumptions, Rt. Honourable O. K. Chinda is not affected at all; he formally defected to the APC on April 23, 2026, his resignation and defection letter carried this effective date and he finalized his registration on the online APC membership portal a few days later, on April 27, 2026, not about one month later as they erroneously assumed,” the network’s President, Mr. Michael Olajide, said.
The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday adjourned to 4 November 2026 the suit filed by Mr. Samuel Amatonjie against the commission, the candidate, the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Clerk of the House, challenging his eligibility to contest. The plaintiff had asked for additional time to study and respond to processes served on him by some of the defendants on 28 September.
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