BREAKING: Abuja Court Orders INEC to Reinstate Ladi Adebutu as Ogun PDP Governorship Candidate

The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately restore Ladi Adebutu as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State ahead of the 2027 general election.

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Peter Lifu held that the electoral commission lacked the legal authority to exclude or remove a candidate duly sponsored by a political party without a valid court order.

The ruling follows a legal challenge instituted by the PDP and Adebutu after INEC omitted his name from the list of eligible candidates published on its portal in October. During the hearing, INEC’s witness had maintained that while the name of the deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, appeared in its records, Adebutu’s name was missing from the submitted register.

However, the PDP National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs that Adebutu’s name was duly included in the flash drive containing the party’s full list of candidates submitted to the commission.

In siding with the plaintiffs, Justice Lifu faulted INEC’s unilateral exclusion of the candidate, affirming that once a political party sponsors an aspirant, the commission cannot drop that name from the ballot unless backed by a judicial pronouncement. Consequently, the court directed INEC to re-enter Adebutu’s name on its official register of candidates cleared for the 2027 Ogun State gubernatorial race.