Court of Appeal to Decide on INEC's Deregistration of Political Parties

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday reserved its judgement in the case against the Federal High Court’s order. This order told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five opposition parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The other parties affected by this order are Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Abba Mohammed, did not set a date for the judgement after lawyers presented their written briefs and final arguments. The panel said it would inform the parties when the judgement is ready.

The appeals were filed by ADC, APP, AA, Accord, ZLP, and INEC, which was also sued as a defendant at the Federal High Court.

In their appeals, they aimed to overturn the judgement made by Judge Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja. The lawyers for the appellants, including Musibau Adetunbi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), asked the court to support their appeals and cancel the lower court's judgement.

On the other hand, Yakubu Ruba, also a SAN, who represented the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL) at the Federal High Court, urged the Court of Appeal to reject the appeals and impose substantial costs on the appellants.

Before hearing the appeals on Tuesday, the court dismissed an application from a faction of AA. This faction wanted to change the party’s lawyer in one of the appeals. The application, led by Adekunle Omoaje, wanted to replace Yakubu Mahdi with Adedola Adedoye as the party’s lawyer.

The opposing faction, led by Kenneth Udeze, disagreed with this request. They claimed that earlier court decisions recognized their leadership as the true leadership of the party. So, only they could choose lawyers to represent the party.

Udeze argued that the application was an abuse of court process because the leadership dispute was already with the Supreme Court. In a unanimous ruling, the appellate court said that Mr Mahdi was properly appointed by the recognised leadership of the party. He remains AA’s lawful lawyer in the appeal.

The court also refused to make decisions on entries on INEC’s portal. It stated that the issue did not arise from the application before it. The panel added that previous rulings recognizing the party’s leadership still stand until the Supreme Court decides otherwise.

The court rejected the application and ordered the Omoaje faction to pay N500,000 costs to the respondents. The dispute started after the NFFL sued INEC, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and five opposition parties.

The group asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to force INEC to deregister ADC, Accord, AA, APP, and ZLP. They argued that the parties did not meet the constitutional requirements to keep their registration under Section 225(a) of the Constitution.

NFFL said the parties did poorly in the 2023 general elections and later by-elections. This made their continued recognition by INEC unconstitutional and harmful to Nigeria’s electoral system. The AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, a SAN, who was a defendant at the trial court, supported the plaintiffs’ claim.

He stated that INEC must deregister parties that do not meet the requirements for registration. The case gained national attention because some affected parties had become platforms for important politicians ahead of the 2027 general elections and off-cycle governorship polls this year.

It also came when ADC became a main opposition platform after attracting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other important opposition figures. The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke’s re-election bid has also brought the Accord Party into the limelight as the 15 August governorship election in the state approaches.

Before Judge Lifu’s judgement, the appellate court had intervened. On 22 May, the court ordered Judge Lifu to stop further proceedings until the determination of an appeal. This appeal came from Lifu’s rejection of a request by Governor Adeleke to join the suit due to his political interest in Accord. Lawyers later served the court’s order on the trial court.

Despite the appellate court’s directive, Judge Lifu delivered a judgement deregistering all five political parties on 15 June. He ordered INEC to remove the five parties from its register and ruled that they could not take part in future elections unless the decision was overturned.

He maintained that no valid order stopped him from delivering the judgement. But, unhappy with this judgement, INEC and the affected political parties appealed, asking the appellate court to cancel the decision.

Less than 24 hours later, the appellate court suspended the judgement. In a unanimous ruling, the panel led by A. Muhammed stated that Judge Lifu acted against its earlier order to stop proceedings. The panel described his actions as “judicial impertinence” and “judicial rascality” before staying the execution of the deregistration order until the appeal is resolved.

The case also sparked wider reactions. INEC, which opposed the suit at the trial court, sought to stay the execution at the appellate court. A civil society group later petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to investigate the judge’s conduct after the judgement was delivered despite the existing appellate court order.