Court of Appeal reserves judgment in ADC deregistration case

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday heard and reserved judgment on appeals seeking to set aside the Federal High Court judgment that ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties.

A three-member panel led by Justice Abba Mohammed okayed the matter for judgment after all parties adopted their briefs of argument.

Aside from the ADC, the other parties seeking to nullify the trial court judgment are the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

The appellate court had, on June 16, ordered a stay of execution of the High Court judgment while sharply criticising the trial judge, Justice Peter Lifu, for disregarding judicial hierarchy.

The panel held that Justice Lifu disobeyed its May 22 order directing him to stay proceedings pending the outcome of the parties’ appeal, despite his attention having been drawn to it, and went ahead to deliver judgment regardless.

It described Justice Lifu’s conduct as “a form of judicial impertinence,” citing an earlier Supreme Court position that a judge who acts in such a manner “is unfit for the bench, as the conduct amounts to judicial rascality.”

Justice Lifu had, in the underlying judgment, directed INEC to deregister the five political parties for failing to meet constitutional requirements for continued existence and participation in future elections.

He barred INEC from further recognising the parties, accepting nominations from them, or giving effect to their activities for purposes of the 2027 general election, and ordered them to stop parading themselves as registered political parties.

The judge said he found merit in the suit filed against the parties by the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL), marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026.

The NFFL had asked the court to determine whether INEC has a constitutional obligation to remove political parties that fail to meet the electoral performance thresholds set out in Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as reinforced by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s regulations.