Court Extends Registry Hours For 2027 Pre-Election Suits

The Federal High Court of Nigeria has ordered its registries nationwide to open on weekends and public holidays specifically for the filing of pre-election matters, a move designed to help litigants and legal practitioners meet the unforgiving constitutional timelines governing electoral disputes ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The directive was contained in a statement signed on Thursday by the court’s Chief Registrar, Yahaya Shafa, who said the decision became necessary in view of the constitutional and statutory deadlines that bind the filing and determination of pre-election cases.

“The Federal High Court of Nigeria formally notifies all legal practitioners that Registries in all Divisions of the Federal High Court would be open between 10:00am and 2:00pm Weekends and Public Holidays for Filing of Pre-Election Matters Only,” the statement read. “This has become expedient to meet up with the limited time frame for filing Pre-election matters.”

The urgency reflects one of the most rigid features of Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence. Under Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution, as altered by the Fourth Alteration Act, every pre-election matter must be filed not later than 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the event, decision, or action being challenged. Courts have repeatedly held that this deadline is absolute. In settled jurisprudence, a suit filed even a day outside the window is struck out as statute-barred, regardless of its merits, with the computation of time including the very day the disputed event occurred.

The 14-day clock applies across the entire dispute chain. An appeal from a decision in a pre-election matter must be filed within 14 days of the judgment, and such appeals must be heard and disposed of within 60 days. These compressed timelines leave aspirants, candidates, and political parties with almost no room for error, making physical access to court registries a decisive factor in whether a grievance is heard at all.

A pre-election matter, as defined under the Constitution, covers suits by aspirants who allege that a political party failed to comply with the Electoral Act or its own guidelines during primaries, as well as challenges to the actions and decisions of the Independent National Electoral Commission relating to candidate nomination.

The court’s intervention lands at the busiest point in the electoral calendar. INEC, operating under the Electoral Act 2026 which repealed the 2022 Act, has scheduled the Presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027, with the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly polls following on February 6, 2027. Party primaries are slated to run from April 23 to May 30, 2026, the precise window during which most pre-election disputes crystallise.

Several parties have already begun conducting primaries for governorship, National Assembly, and state assembly positions, intensifying the likelihood of nomination disputes. Because aggrieved aspirants typically have only two weeks from a contested primary or party decision to approach the court, the availability of registries on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays could prove decisive for litigants whose deadlines fall outside regular working days.

With the Electoral Act 2026 having compressed several statutory timelines, the weekend registry arrangement signals the judiciary’s effort to keep pace with an accelerated electoral cycle and to forestall the dismissal of genuine grievances on purely technical grounds.