The Peoples Democratic Party’s bid to overturn the last local government elections in Kwara State has suffered a major legal setback after the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed its suit challenging the polls.

Justice Peter O. Lifu, who delivered the judgment, ruled that the PDP’s case was statute-barred and amounted to an abuse of court process.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1061/2024, was initially filed by the PDP against the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, among other parties. The original case sought to stop KWASIEC from conducting the local government elections and prevent INEC from releasing the voters’ register for use in the exercise.

The legal battle began before the September 2024 local government elections. At an earlier stage of the case, Justice Lifu had granted an interim order concerning the release of the voters’ register, but the order was later set aside after the court held that it had exceeded the period allowed for such an ex-parte order.

The elections subsequently went ahead.

According to the judgment, the PDP did not remain outside the electoral process. The party participated in the polls and later challenged the results through election petitions.

Justice Lifu found that the party had pursued those petitions but, after they were unsuccessful, returned to the Federal High Court and amended its existing case to seek reliefs aimed at nullifying the elections.

The judge held that the amendment fundamentally changed the nature of the original action. In effect, a case that began as a pre-election challenge had been transformed into a post-election dispute.

The court ruled that the Federal High Court could not assume the role of an election tribunal through an amendment to an existing suit.

Justice Lifu also agreed with the defendants that the timing of the amended action created a limitation problem, making the suit statute-barred. The court further held that pursuing the matter through the amended suit amounted to an abuse of court process.

The judgment means the PDP could not use the Federal High Court proceedings to obtain remedies that were no longer available to it after it had participated in the elections and pursued the appropriate election-petition process.

The case is the latest development in a legal dispute that began in 2024, when the PDP challenged the conduct of the Kwara local government elections and alleged breaches of relevant electoral laws by KWASIEC.

The Federal High Court’s latest decision therefore leaves the PDP’s attempt to use the suit to nullify the Kwara local government elections unsuccessful.

Reporting by TalkNaijaMedia