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.
