Pelumi Olajengbesi, an Abuja-based lawyer, has called on political parties to stop dragging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into what he described as frivolous and avoidable litigations, warning that incessant intra-party disputes are diverting the electoral body from its core responsibility of conducting credible elections.
Olajengbesi, a senior partner at the Abuja-based law firm, Law Corridor, said political parties must take greater responsibility for resolving their internal conflicts rather than rushing to the courts and making INEC a party to every dispute. He noted that many of the cases, particularly those related to party primaries and leadership disagreements, ought to be settled internally instead of becoming legal battles that consume the commission’s time and resources.
In a statement issued on Monday, the lawyer stressed that while INEC is constitutionally required to participate in both pre-election and post-election litigations, political parties must exercise caution in the type of cases they bring before the courts.
“Though INEC is constitutionally mandated to be a party to pre-election and post-election litigations, political parties should apply caution and discretion in the type of cases that they join the electoral umpire in,” Olajengbesi said. “INEC should be allowed to focus on its core mandate: to conduct credible polls.”
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He argued that the increasing number of cases involving political parties is placing unnecessary pressure on the electoral system and slowing the country’s democratic progress.
To illustrate the trend, Olajengbesi cited a 2025 report by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), which revealed a high failure rate in election-related cases following the 2023 general elections.
According to the report, 88.9 per cent of the 895 cases reviewed at the Election Petition Tribunals failed, with only 11.1 per cent succeeding. At the Court of Appeal, 79.4 per cent of the 588 election appeals also failed, while just 20.9 per cent were successful.
The report further showed that 73.1 per cent of the dismissed cases failed because petitioners could not discharge the burden of proof. Another 14.7 per cent were thrown out for procedural reasons, while 8.5 per cent were dismissed because the courts lacked jurisdiction over matters considered to be pre-election disputes. An additional 3.7 per cent were rejected due to a lack of legal standing by the petitioners.
Olajengbesi said the statistics highlight the extent to which the judicial system and the electoral commission are being burdened by cases that often lack merit.
“Aside from the waste of precious judicial time, these cases that were short of merit slow down our democracy when the electoral umpire ought to focus on solid election planning but is pulled here and there to courts by political parties,” he said.
He therefore urged the 21 registered political parties in Nigeria to strengthen their internal conflict resolution mechanisms and stop involving INEC in avoidable disputes, particularly those relating to party primaries.
The lawyer also pointed to Section 83(5) of the newly promulgated Electoral Act 2026, which provides that courts should not entertain suits relating to the internal affairs of political parties.
The provision states: “Subject to the provision of subsection (3), no Court in Nigeria shall entertain jurisdiction over any suit or matter pertaining to the internal affairs of a political party.”
Concerns over the rising number of intra-party disputes have also been raised by the electoral commission itself. Recently, INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, expressed worry over the surge in litigations arising from internal party conflicts, warning that the trend is diverting the commission’s attention from its core mandate of election planning.
INEC has previously disclosed that it handled more than 600 pre-election cases ahead of the 2023 general elections and set aside over N3 billion to manage post-election litigations.
Even earlier, in 2018, the commission lamented the growing number of conflicting court judgments stemming from leadership tussles within political parties, which it said continued to distract it from its primary duty of organising credible elections.
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