A candidate for the House of Representatives, Fufore/Song Federal Constituency of Adamawa State, whose name was given as Boya Wakili has had his disqualification from the 2023 elections overturned by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday.
Africa Daily New York gathered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s disqualification of the candidate was overturned due to its illegitimacy, unfairness, and violation of the politician’s fundamental rights.
In a ruling, Justice Obiora Egwuatu directed INEC to immediately restore the candidate’s name to its website after determining that it had been wrongfully taken off the list of victorious candidates the electoral body had released for the general election scheduled for the following year.
Justice Egwuatu ruled in a lawsuit brought by the candidate that INEC had no authority to penalize or punish Wakili for the service disruption that occurred while his name was about to be published.
In order to dispute INEC’s hesitation to publicize Wakili’s name for the House of Representatives election as mandated by law, Wakili’s counsel, Yemi Pitan, brought INEC, the All Progressives Congress, and Abdullahi Adamu before the court.
He maintained that he was victorious in the APC’s Fufore/Song Federal Constituency primary poll, which was observed by INEC officials and in which his name was legally presented to INEC by the APC on June 15 at the required period.
The defendant told the court that on June 24, when he noticed that his name was omitted from the list of candidates that INEC had uploaded, he was surprised. He said that after asking why, he was told that network problems were to blame for the omission.
Wakili claimed that all attempts to persuade INEC to fix ite error was met with resistance, with INEC certain that only a court order could compel it to do so.
However, INEC acknowledged in its defense that despite Wakili’s name being submitted, it was unable to be posted into its site within the legal time limits because of a serious network issue that the electoral board encountered.
Since his name had not been published within the time, the electoral board noted that it decided to remove his name from the list, unless judgment by a qualified judge is passed.
Hassan Mohammed, the INEC’s lawyer, sought with the court to maintain his client’s decision.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, however, characterized the INEC defense as absurd and rebuffed it in his ruling.
According to the judge, INEC’s actions violated the politician’s fundamental rights because he was eligible to run for office in the House of Representatives and had a legitimate interest in having his name published.
After that, Justice Egwuatu issued a ruling granting the defendant all rights, advantages, and accreditation for the 2023 general election.
However, the judge decided not to compensate the plaintiff financially for his legal expenses or damages.
