The Federal High Court in Abuja has upheld the exclusion of Labour Party (LP) candidates from the forthcoming Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Justice Peter Lifu declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish the list of LP candidates for the elections scheduled for February 21.
Justice Lifu dismissed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2110/2025, filed by the Labour Party and its FCT candidates against INEC.
The plaintiffs had told the court that INEC unlawfully excluded LP’s duly nominated candidates when it published its final list of contestants in September 2025. They further alleged that the party’s logo was also omitted from the list of political parties cleared to participate in the FCT elections.
LP said it wrote to the INEC chairman on September 8, 2025, to protest the exclusion, and sent a follow-up letter on October 2, 2025, but received no response. The party argued that without the court’s intervention, it would be unfairly barred from fielding candidates in the council polls.
