The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has admitted it has yet to formally assess the fallout from a pair of contradictory court rulings that have thrown the country’s 2027 election timetable into confusion, leaving political parties and candidates in a state of deepening uncertainty.
INEC confirmed on Saturday that it had not convened a meeting to determine how competing Federal High Court judgments would affect the validity of recently conducted party primaries or the deadline for submitting candidates’ names — one of the most consequential procedural milestones in the electoral calendar.
Mohammed Haruna, the commission’s national commissioner and chairman of its information and voter education committee, said INEC’s immediate posture was simply to comply with the rulings while simultaneously challenging them in a higher court. “Since there is a judgment already, we have to obey that judgment. We have appealed and that is our position right now,” he told Sunday Punch. “Work resumes on Monday and I am sure as soon as possible, we will hold a meeting.”
The legal turbulence stems from two sharply divergent rulings delivered by Federal High Court judges in Abuja. In the first, Justice Umar Mohammed struck down key provisions of INEC’s guidelines on party primaries, holding that the commission had overstepped its statutory authority by imposing conditions — including candidate submission deadlines — that went beyond what is explicitly permitted under the constitution, the Electoral Act and the internal rules of political parties. The ruling, if it stands, would significantly curtail the commission’s regulatory grip over the nomination process.
The second judgment pointed in the opposite direction. Justice James Omotosho upheld INEC’s power to set and amend election timetables at its discretion, provided it operates within the bounds of existing legislation — a ruling that appears to directly contradict the logic of his colleague’s decision.
INEC has since filed an appeal at the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, seeking to have Justice Mohammed’s ruling set aside. But until the appellate court rules, the commission finds itself in the awkward position of being legally obliged to observe a judgment it believes to be wrong — while the outcomes of numerous party primaries already conducted under the disputed guidelines remain in limbo.
The impasse arrives at a moment of frenetic political activity. Parties across the country have been holding primaries for state assembly, national assembly, gubernatorial and presidential contests ahead of 2027, and the uncertainty over whether those processes will be deemed valid is already fuelling anxiety among aspirants and party officials.
For an electoral body that has long struggled to command the confidence of Nigerian voters, the spectacle of its own guidelines being struck down by one judge and defended by another does little to project the image of institutional authority that credible elections demand. With voting still more than a year away, INEC has time to resolve the crisis — but only if it moves quickly once its officials return from the Eid break.
