The All Democratic Alliance (ADA) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant it the access code to upload its details ahead of the 2027 election.
The call is contained in a statement issued by Mr Aminu Ahmed, the Protem National Secretary of ADA in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ahmed said ADA was one of the eight political associations prequalified by INEC to be registered as a political party.
He said the refusal of the electoral umpire to comply with the order of court had stalled the process of uploading the list of party’s officials, office addresses, among others, as required by the commission’s guidelines and regulation.
He said INEC’s compliance would enable them complete the registration process and be issued with a certificate of registration as a political party.
The party warned that failure by INEC to comply within 48 hours could trigger contempt proceedings against the commission’s Chairman, the Director of the Department of Election and Party Monitoring (EPM), and other relevant officials.
“Based on the order of the Federal High Court to issue the access code to us within 72 hours from the date of the court’s judgment , INEC was supposed to have issued the access code latest by Aug. 4.
“INEC is now defying a valid court order for a period of 39 days today and counting.
“ADA views this deliberate non-compliance as a direct assault on the rule of law and a calculated attempt to stall the registration of our political association into a political party and deny our teeming members and supporters the opportunity to participate in the electoral process.
“We hold the INEC chairman and the director, Department of EPM, personally responsible for this continuous obstruction, which is a clear case of contempt of court.
NAN reports that ADA party leaders, Chief Akin Rickets and Mr Ahmed, through their counsel, M.U. Kumalia, had sued INEC and Dr Umar Ardo over the release of the access code to the party.
Justice Peter Lifu had, in his judgment on June 29, ruled that the issuance of the access code to Ardo, who was not a recognised protem secretary of the political association was illegal, wrongful, null and void.
The judge further ordered INEC to open its portal for a period of one week to enable the ADA leadership upload necessary documents, including digital register of members and other associated political party’s requirements on the INEC’s portal as required by law.(NAN)
