The Accord Party has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to throw out a suit seeking the disqualification of all its candidates for the 2027 general elections, describing the case as incompetent, premature and already caught by statutory time limits.
The party set out its position in a preliminary objection filed through its counsel, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN). The objection challenges a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2524/2026, which was instituted by the party’s National Secretary, Adebukola Ajaja, on October 21, 2026.
Ajaja went to court after alleging that her duties as National Secretary were taken over by the National Chairman, Maxwell Mgbudem, and the National Organising Secretary, Ibe Kenechukwu ThankGod, when the party submitted its candidates’ list to the Independent National Electoral Commission. She argued that the party constitution, the Electoral Act 2026, and INEC’s guidelines for political parties all require the National Chairman and National Secretary to jointly sign and submit the documents.
In her claim, Ajaja singled out three letters, dated June 30, July 19 and August 5, 2026, that forwarded the party’s EC9 forms to INEC. She asked the court to nullify Forms EC9(A) to EC9(E), declare the submissions invalid, and grant a perpetual injunction setting the documents aside. INEC, the Accord Party, Mgbudem and Kenechukwu are listed as the first to fourth defendants.
Accord countered that the suit was filed outside the 14-day window allowed by law and that the court has no jurisdiction because the matter concerns candidate nomination, which it described as an internal party affair. The party also questioned Ajaja’s standing to sue, pointing out that she was not an aspirant in the primary election held on May 29, 2026.
The party raised two further objections. It said the suit was defective because the candidates whose nominations Ajaja wants cancelled were not joined as parties, leaving them unable to defend their own nominations. It added that the action was premature, arguing that Ajaja failed to serve the mandatory 21-day pre-action notice.
On the substance, Accord maintained that its primary was conducted in line with the law and that INEC recognised the exercise and received the candidates’ list in the required format. The party defended the right of its National Chairman and National Organising Secretary to sign and submit the documents in the absence of the National Secretary, relying on Article 18 of its constitution and Regulations 25(3) and 28(2) of INEC’s guidelines.
According to the party’s filing, the rules do not oblige the National Secretary to sign the forwarding letter, and the national executives expressly authorised the organising secretary to co-sign with the chairman. “No wrong has been done,” the party stated. It also cited the Supreme Court decision in Jegede v. INEC, contending that the chairman’s signature alone would have been sufficient and that Ajaja’s case would fail on that authority.
In a counter-affidavit, Mgbudem accused Ajaja of abandoning her responsibilities rather than being sidelined. He said she had stopped attending meetings of the National Working Committee and had missed three consecutive sittings of the body, which under the party constitution is made up of the national executive officers.
Mgbudem also questioned Ajaja’s handling of the party’s finances and disputed her account of the litigation arising from the primaries, putting the number of such suits at no fewer than 16. He said the National Working Committee resolved on May 24, 2026 that he and the organising secretary should jointly sign the forwarding letter, and that the electronic submission of nomination forms did not require every document to be physically signed, given the large number of parties and candidates in the 2027 race.
The court is yet to fix a date to hear the objection.