Court Cancels APC Chapters Abroad, Orders Fund Transparency

The FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday, cancelled the chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the United Kingdom and other foreign countries for being illegal.

Judge Peter Kekemeke delivered this decision in a case brought by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The ruling settled the ongoing argument about whether political parties can have chapters outside Nigeria.

He ordered the APC to hand over more than N30 million made from selling forms to INEC. The judge said the APC had no right to collect those funds from outside Nigeria.

“The first defendant has no legal power and capacity to establish, hold, maintain, recognise, supervise or monitor and or receive or maintain or solicit or receive funds from any person of his political party membership in the Executive Committee of Governing Council outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the judge said.

He also stated that the APC or any political party must inform INEC and report all donations received from outside Nigeria within 21 days, as required by the Nigerian constitution.

“It is further declared that the first defendant is under a statutory and mandatory obligation to notify, account, develop all forms of access to financial donations received from persons in the diaspora and organisations outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the second defendant, within 21 days time frame stated under section 254 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Mr Kekemeke held.

INEC filed the case marked No: CV/187/2025, asking the court to cancel the UK Diaspora chapter of the APC.

The court ruled that diaspora chapters of Nigerian political parties were illegal, unconstitutional, and not recognized by Nigerian laws.

It ruled that no political party registered in Nigeria has the constitutional power to maintain or hold congresses outside Nigeria.

But the judge stated that Nigerians living abroad can support and promote their preferred candidates in Nigeria. However, political parties cannot legally have chapters outside the country.

Mr Kekemeke added that political parties cannot organize congresses for Nigerians living abroad.

The court said that any political party, individual, or group that operates, supports, or promotes a diaspora chapter of a Nigerian political party is committing an offence.

The judge also ruled that individuals or groups managing such chapters and collecting membership fees or other financial contributions are committing an offence that could lead to a N5 million fine and imprisonment.

“The first defendant is thereby ordered to dissolve all executive committees or executive members, parties or governing bodies of the political party in the United Kingdom…anywhere in the diaspora outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the judge ordered.

The court also stopped the APC “from establishing, constituting, and from maintaining any sector of his political party in the United Kingdom or anywhere in the diaspora outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

INEC had criticized the congress of the party in the UK, stating its activities were outside the constitutional and legal framework for political parties in Nigeria.

The commission also informed the court of its plan to recover all the money unlawfully collected for the so-called diaspora congress, which is estimated to be over N30 million.

The court granted all 14 requests of the claimant, including five mandatory orders supported by the commission.