[JURIST] A Nigerian court held Wednesday that Vice President Atiku Abubakar [official profile; JURIST news archive] can run in next month's presidential election, throwing out a decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission [official website] (INEC) to ban Abubakar after he was indicted for corruption. Only the court has the authority to ban a candidate from contesting elections under the country's 2006 Electoral Act [text], said Justice Babs Kuewumi of the Federal High Court in Abuja [official website].

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) [BBC profile] expelled [Afrol report] Abubakar from the party over corruption allegations [AP report] linking him to US Congressman William Jefferson [JURIST news archive]. Abubakar is currently running as a presidential candidate for the opposition Action Congress (AC) [Wikipedia backgrounder] party in the April 21 poll. In February, Abubakar was indicted [JURIST report] on corruption charges by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). AFP has more. The Daily Independent has local coverage.