The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reinstate Oladipupo Adebutu as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for the February 6, 2027 election in Ogun State.
Justice Peter Lifu gave the order on Friday while delivering judgment in a suit filed by the PDP and Adebutu against INEC over the exclusion of his name from the commission’s final list of candidates.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, was instituted on October 22, following INEC’s omission of Adebutu’s name from the final list of candidates published on October 10. 
The plaintiffs had urged the court to set aside INEC’s decision to omit, remove or refuse to publish Adebutu’s name, arguing that the action violated his right to fair hearing and contravened Sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act, 2026.
They also sought an order directing the electoral commission to publish Adebutu’s name as the PDP governorship candidate within 24 hours of the judgment.
However, INEC opposed the suit, maintaining that Adebutu’s name was missing from the register of party members previously submitted to the commission by the PDP.
In its counter-affidavit, the commission, through Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Programme Analyst in its Information and Communication Technology Department, said its records contained only the name of the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi.
INEC further challenged Adebutu’s claim to membership serial number 1536, insisting that its records showed the number belonged to another individual, Lugboso Sunday Seun.
But Justice Lifu, after hearing the arguments of the parties and considering their final written addresses, ruled in favour of Adebutu and the PDP, directing INEC to restore his name as the party’s governorship candidate.
The ruling effectively reverses INEC’s earlier exclusion of Adebutu from the list of candidates for the forthcoming Ogun governorship election.
