…Heads to court
The All Democratic Alliance, (ADA), is set to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court following its exclusion from the final stage of political party registration, accusing the electoral umpire of deliberately shrinking Nigeria’s democratic space in favour of the ruling party.
Speaking on LibertyTV’s flagship public affairs programme: ‘PoliticsNOW‘, Convener of the League of Northern Democrats and key promoter of ADA, Dr. Umar Arɗo, made the allegation in Abuja, warning that INEC’s actions could reduce elections to mere “affirmation exercises” rather than genuine contests of ideas.
Ardo said INEC failed to give any official explanation for rejecting ADA’s application despite the group meeting all constitutional and statutory requirements.
“INEC did not register any of the associations, not one,” he said, adding that: “Incidentally, INEC did not issue any press release or post anything on its website, because it knows that public opinion will be highly against it”.
Arɗo’s comments come amid revelations that INEC has cleared only two political associations — the African Alliance Party (AAP) and the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA) — to proceed to the final stage of party registration, out of scores that initially applied.
Recall that INEC had announced in June 2025 that it received letters of intent from 110 associations seeking registration. By early September, the figure rose to 171. On September 11, the commission granted provisional approval to 14 associations, including ADA, after an initial screening.
In October, INEC further shortlisted eight groups — ADA, Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), Abundance Social Party (ASP), AAP, DLA, Green Future Party (GFP), National Democratic Party (NDP) and Peoples Freedom Party (PFP) — stating that they had met constitutional and statutory requirements and would undergo physical verification.
Arɗo explained that ADA followed the process to the letter, including payment of a non-refundable N2 million administrative fee demanded by INEC.
“Out of the 172 that applied, they screened down to 14, collected N2 million from each of us, and we applied through the dedicated portal”, he stated. “If any column on the portal is not filled, you cannot even submit. We filled every column and met every requirement of the law”, he stressed.
According to him, INEC later confirmed ADA’s pre-qualification and conducted a physical verification exercise at the party’s office on Monday, August 8, which lasted nearly four hours. “They came to see our executives physically, inspect our offices and verify original documents”, Arɗo noted.
However, sources familiar with the process disclosed that INEC eventually cleared only AAP and DLA, disqualifying the remaining six associations, including ADA, over what the Commission described as compliance issues.
With dissatisfaction mounting, Arɗo confirmed that ADA has approached the courts to challenge INEC’s decision, joining other affected associations seeking judicial intervention.
Efforts to get INEC’s official reaction to the allegations were unsuccessful as of press time, as the commission did not respond to inquiries.
