ADC Says INEC Ruling Opens Floodgates For APC Defections
The African Democratic Congress has declared that a Federal High Court judgment nullifying key sections of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s regulations for the 2027 general elections will unleash a wave of defections from the ruling All Progressives Congress, as the opposition party welcomed the verdict as a direct vindication of its earlier legal and political position.
The ADC made this declaration on Thursday in an official statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, while formally responding to the court’s ruling on INEC’s guidelines concerning deadlines for party primaries and membership registration, as reported by PUNCH Online.
“We believed at the time that that particular restriction was designed to prevent people from leaving the ruling party, APC. Now that the court has ruled against it, we are sure that, in the coming days, we will witness a mass exodus from the ruling party,” Abdullahi stated in the party’s official release.
The ADC revealed it had raised objections to what it described as restrictive timelines embedded in the electoral body’s guidelines from the moment those provisions were introduced. The party argued that those timelines were not merely procedurally flawed but fundamentally at odds with constitutional guarantees on freedom of association.
“The decision of the court on these issues, including those that directly contradict the Constitution, is therefore a welcome vindication of our position,” the statement read.
The Federal High Court had on Wednesday nullified critical portions of INEC’s timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 elections, ruling that the electoral commission exceeded its statutory powers by compressing timelines that are expressly defined under the Electoral Act, 2026. According to PUNCH Online, which first reported the judgment, INEC had directed political parties to conduct primaries within a shortened window ahead of the presidential, National Assembly, governorship, and state assembly elections scheduled for February and March 2027.
The commission had also imposed earlier deadlines for the submission of candidates’ particulars, replacement of candidates, publication of final lists, and conclusion of campaigns, all falling before the periods stipulated in the Electoral Act. The court held that each of those provisions was inconsistent with the law, and specifically ruled that political parties retain the statutory right to withdraw and replace candidates up to 90 days before an election, a timeline INEC had sought to curtail.
The ADC argued that removing those restrictions would meaningfully broaden democratic participation by allowing politicians greater flexibility to seek electoral opportunities on alternative platforms without being boxed in by artificially compressed schedules.
The party expressed optimism that the ruling would strengthen the integrity and competitiveness of the 2027 electoral cycle, noting that genuine multiparty democracy requires regulatory frameworks that do not disadvantage political movements outside the dominant party structure.
The judgment arrives at a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s pre-election political landscape, with the 2027 general elections already generating intense maneuvering across party lines and persistent speculation about the stability of the APC’s coalition ahead of the next electoral cycle.