The Labour Party has filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against INEC, decrying its wrongful exclusion from the upcoming June 20 Enugu North senatorial by-election.
The Labour Party (LP) has launched a legal battle against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Federal High Court in Abuja, vigorously contesting the electronic exclusion of its candidate from the upcoming Enugu North Senatorial District by-election, currently scheduled for June 20, 2026.
The critical senatorial seat became vacant following the tragic demise of Senator Okey Ezea, an influential Labour Party lawmaker who passed away on November 18, 2025.
In a press briefing on Monday in Abuja, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Asogwa, revealed that despite the party meticulously satisfying all statutory requirements and administrative timelines, INEC’s digitised nomination portal repeatedly blocked the party from uploading its candidate’s credentials.
Asogwa detailed that the party exhausted administrative remedies, including submitting formal protests and high-level correspondence to the electoral commission before the final portal submission window slammed shut on June 2, 2026. However, these institutional interventions yielded zero results, forcing the party to seek judicial redress.
“Labour Party cannot be made to suffer the consequences of an official’s absence, negligence, incompetence or dereliction of duty. Electoral processes and the constitutional rights of political parties cannot be subjected to the convenience or personal circumstances of individual officers,” Asogwa declared.
The core of the dispute stems from deep bureaucratic friction within the Enugu State INEC establishment. The LP spokesman revealed that the Head of Elections and Party Monitoring (EPM) in Enugu State reportedly refused to transmit the mandatory official report of the Labour Party’s primary election. The official allegedly justified this decision on the grounds that he was physically out of town on the day the primary was conducted.
The Labour Party vehemently rejected this excuse, arguing that the legality of a political primary cannot be invalidated by the absence of commission staff. Under the Electoral Act, political parties are legally mandated only to provide INEC with adequate formal notification of upcoming primaries-a statutory obligation the LP fully discharged.
Despite the grass-roots operational failure in Enugu, the Labour Party reaffirmed its absolute institutional confidence in the integrity of the national INEC leadership, currently overseen by the Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN).
The party called on the national chairman to immediately probe the actions of the Enugu state staff and dish out severe disciplinary sanctions against any compromised or negligent actors.
The LP underscored that locking out the incumbent party from a vacancy triggered by the death of its own sitting senator is a severe miscarriage of justice.
While urging its massive following across Enugu North to remain law-abiding and peaceful, the party leadership stated that it has complete faith in the Nigerian judiciary to swiftly rectify the administrative anomaly and protect the democratic rights of the electorate before the June 20 ballot.
Visit GMTNewsng for more news stories.