*As Pre-Hearing Looms On April 24
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The All Progressives Congress candidate in the Gwagwalada Area Council chairmanship election has sent a formal application to the Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Baba Yusuf, seeking the urgent dissolution and reconstitution of the Area Council Election Tribunal arguing that the tribunal as currently constituted does not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026, which came into force three days before the election was conducted.
The application, filed by Chris Kelechi Udeoyibo Esq. of Kel Attorneys Law Firm on behalf of Alhaji Usman Yahaya, warns that the tribunal is at risk of commencing pre-hearing sessions on April 24 without jurisdiction a fundamental defect that could invalidate the entire proceedings and compromise the determination of the election petition.
At the heart of the challenge is a timing issue created by the passage of the Electoral Act 2026: the new law, which repealed and replaced the Electoral Act 2022, was signed by the President on February 18, 2026 just three days before the area council election was held. However, the election tribunal was constituted under the provisions of the now-repealed Electoral Act 2022, creating what the petitioner argues is a fatal jurisdictional defect.
The application centres on the difference between the tribunal composition requirements under the old and new electoral acts.
Under Section 131(3) of the repealed Electoral Act 2022, the Chairman of an Area Council Election Tribunal shall be a Chief Magistrate, while two other members may be appointed from among Magistrates of the FCT judiciary, legal practitioners of at least ten years post-call experience, and other persons of unquestionable character.
The present tribunal was constituted under these provisions and consists of Chief Magistrate Lateef Abolaji as Chairman, Chief Magistrate Fatima Malo Nadoma as Member I, and Charles Abalaka Esq. as Member II.
However, the Electoral Act 2026 which is now the extant law introduced a new statutory regime with different qualification requirements for members of an Area Council Election Tribunal. Since the election was conducted under the Electoral Act 2026 (having been signed into law three days before polling day), the petitioner argues that the tribunal hearing petitions arising from that election must also be constituted under the Electoral Act 2026 — not the repealed 2022 Act.
The petitioner’s position is straightforward: a tribunal constituted under a repealed law lacks jurisdiction to hear petitions arising from an election conducted under the new law. Any proceedings conducted by such a tribunal would be void for want of jurisdiction, regardless of their merits.
The application is marked as urgent because the tribunal has already issued hearing notices to all parties for the commencement of pre-hearing sessions on April 24, 2026, as required under Paragraph 18 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2026.
The pre-hearing session is a critical procedural step that sets the stage for the substantive hearing of the election petition. It involves the identification of issues, exchange of documents, and establishment of the procedural framework for the trial.
If the tribunal proceeds with the pre-hearing on April 24 without being reconstituted, the petitioner argues, it would be sitting and conducting proceedings without jurisdiction — a defect that cannot be cured retrospectively and that could invalidate everything that follows.
“The petitioners are now seriously worried that if the Chief Judge of FCT High Court delays any further in reconstituting the membership of the tribunal, the tribunal as presently constituted would proceed to conduct the pre-hearing,” the application stated.
The underlying election petition was filed by Alhaji Usman Yahaya, the APC candidate, challenging the victory of Mohammed Kasim of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Gwagwalada Area Council chairmanship election.
The details of the substantive petition including the specific grounds on which the election result is being challenged were not disclosed in the application to the Chief Judge, which focuses solely on the tribunal’s composition.
However, the jurisdictional challenge, if successful, would not end the petition but rather require the Chief Judge to dissolve the current tribunal and constitute a new one in compliance with the Electoral Act 2026 before any proceedings can commence a process that would inevitably delay the hearing of the petition.
The case highlights an unusual situation created by the timing of the Electoral Act 2026’s passage.
The law was signed on February 18, 2026. The area council election was held on February 21, 2026 just three days later. The election tribunal was subsequently constituted, apparently using the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 that had been in place when the tribunal composition process began.
The petitioner’s argument is that the signing of the new Act on February 18 immediately repealed the old Act and its provisions, meaning any action taken under the old Act after that date including the constitution of the tribunal was taken under a law that no longer existed.
This raises a broader question about whether other election tribunals across the FCT were constituted under the same repealed provisions, and whether similar challenges could be raised in other area council election petitions.
The Chief Judge of the FCT High Court faces a time-sensitive decision.
If he agrees with the petitioner that the tribunal was improperly constituted, he must dissolve the current tribunal, determine the correct composition requirements under the Electoral Act 2026, and constitute a new tribunal before proceedings can begin all while the statutory timeline for hearing and determining election petitions continues to run.
If he disagrees and determines that the current composition is valid either because the old Act’s provisions were preserved through transitional arrangements or because the composition requirements have not materially changed the tribunal can proceed as scheduled on April 24.
If he delays the decision, the tribunal may proceed with the pre-hearing on April 24 under the current composition, potentially creating a situation where substantive proceedings are conducted by a tribunal whose jurisdiction is in question proceedings that could be nullified if the jurisdictional challenge is subsequently upheld.
The case carries implications beyond the Gwagwalada petition.
If the petitioner’s argument is upheld, it could affect the AMAC chairmanship election petition as well, since the application references both Gwagwalada and AMAC tribunals. It could also set a precedent for election tribunals in other FCT area councils and potentially in other jurisdictions where elections were conducted shortly after the Electoral Act 2026 came into force.
The case also highlights a recurring challenge in Nigerian electoral law: the tendency for new legislation to be enacted close to election dates, creating transitional complications that generate litigation over procedural and jurisdictional issues rather than the substantive merits of election petitions.
For the parties to the Gwagwalada election petition both the APC petitioner challenging the result and the PDP respondent defending it the jurisdictional question must be resolved before any meaningful adjudication of the election dispute can begin.
The Chief Judge’s response to the application is awaited.
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