Court Orders INEC to Open Portal for Democratic Alliance

On a Monday, a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide access codes to the Democratic Alliance (ADA) within 72 hours. This ruling followed a case brought by ADA, represented by Chief Akin Ricketts, against INEC for failing to issue the necessary access codes to upload their membership register.

The court found INEC's refusal to release the access codes as illegal, wrong, null, and void. The judgment also stated that the protem secretary of the association, Umar Ardo, was not recognized by the court, which further invalidated INEC's actions.

The court ordered INEC to open its portal for one week to enable the plaintiff to upload required documents, including the membership register, as mandated by electoral law. ADA's counsel, Stephen Atabo, argued that INEC's actions violated existing laws regarding access to electoral information.