Court halts removal of five opposition parties from register

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has put a stop to the enforcement of a Federal High Court ruling that told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove five opposition political parties from its register.

On Tuesday, a three-member panel of the appeal court criticized Federal High Court Judge Peter Lifu for going ahead with the case and giving the deregistration order. The panel noted that this happened even though there was already an order from the Court of Appeal and the case was still open.

The appeal court described Judge Lifu's actions as judicial misconduct for continuing to hear and make the order. The court then ordered a stay of execution of the judgment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Judge Lifu had ordered the deregistration of five political parties on Monday because they did not meet the legal requirements to remain registered.

The parties affected are the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action People’s Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and Accord. In his ruling, Judge Lifu stated that these parties failed to meet the constitutional standards under Section 225(a) of the Nigerian Constitution to keep their registration.

This section allows INEC to deregister parties that do not meet the constitutional requirements. PREMIUM TIMES reported that Judge Lifu made his ruling after a lawsuit was filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators against INEC and the parties involved.

The group asked the court to force INEC to take the parties off its register, claiming they did not meet the constitutional conditions for staying registered under Section 225(a) of the Nigerian Constitution.

During the proceedings in the Federal High Court, lawyers for some of the parties affected mentioned that there was an ongoing appeal at the Court of Appeal. Despite this information, Judge Lifu went ahead to give his judgment, saying that no valid stay order had been presented to the court and that the case was ready for a decision.

He then ordered INEC to deregister the political parties involved.