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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal High Court ruling, which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party (AP), Action People’s Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA) and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), has elicited mixed reactions.
Justice Peter Lifu, in his verdict on Monday, declared that the affected parties failed to meet constitutional benchmarks, which include securing at least 25% of votes in the states in the presidential election or winning at least one elective seat at the federal, state or local government level.
Lifu also instructed INEC to ensure that the affected political parties do not take part in the 2027 general election.
The judgement followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, filed by the National Forum of Former Legislators. Expectedly, political pundits have questioned the intensions of the plaintiff and periscope the outcome of the 2027 elections.
They also blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the judgement, claiming that it was trying to stifle opposition political parties in favour of its candidate, President Bola Tinubu. While denouncing the ruling, the Accord Party described it as a complete travesty of justice, which it said will not stand.
AP’s national chairman, Maxwell Mgbudem, argued that the judgement was delivered in flagrant disregard of the subsisting Court of Appeal stay of proceedings order on the matter.
Mgbudem said it was curious that the Federal High Court would proceed to deliver judgement on a matter before the appellant court that had granted a stay of proceedings, aware that the delivery of the judgement was part of the proceedings of the court. He maintained that the court is the temple of justice governed by the rule of law and due process, not fiat.
The party chairman stressed that AP would challenge the contentious judgement “hurriedly delivered in disobedience of the appellant court order. The party’s legal team has commenced action to overturn the ruling.”
More importantly, he declared that the party was not affected in the suit filed by the plaintiff as it won two councillorship elections in Jigawa State which fulfilled extant constitutional and electoral frameworks.
He assured members, candidates and supporters that the party will be on ballot in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, and the 2027 generals election etc.
“The party will continue its preparation for the upcoming elections, particularly the flag off of the Imole campaign scheduled for Tuesday, 16th June 2026, in Osun State. The attempt to distract our great party by anti-democratic and reactionary forces has failed once again and will continue to fail.
“Accord offers hope for millions of citizens desirous of good governance, compassionate leadership, economic prosperity and national security. Accord will continue to uphold the rule of law, promotes multiparty democracy in Nigeria and resists any attempt to undermine the nation’s hard earned constitutional governance,” he stated.
Equally, the ZLP presidential candidate, Dan Nwanyanwu, faulted the verdict, debating that the judgement was handed down in defiance to an existing order from the Court of Appeal.
He said: “What happened today is a travesty of justice. What happened today can never be accommodated in the legal practice. The proceedings in this court have been stayed by the Court of Appeal. This particular judge, Peter Lifu, wanted to give judgment on the 5th of this month, and when he saw the stay, he couldn’t deliver the judgment.
“Just this morning around 8:00 or 9:00, he sent hearing notices to all the parties to be in court, and they gave their judgment. So, you ask yourself, is there no more respect to the hierarchy of courts?”
He maintained that the judge was fully aware of the ongoing appellate proceedings but chose to proceed nonetheless.
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“In fact, his attention was drawn to the appeal. His attention was drawn to the proceedings in the Court of Appeal. He chose to ignore it. That is irresponsible, with the greatest respect.
“It is something that will now expose all that has been going on within the judiciary, particularly in the Federal High Court. INEC has powers to register and de-register political parties, and 225 has given you conditions. Under 225, all that a political party is expected to win in order to pass this threshold is just one councillor.
“In the case of our party, we won 15 local governments. We won 176 councillors in Abia, Nasarawa and Rivers, even before they took that of Rivers. So, we have passed the threshold, and we deposited all the certificates of returns before Lifu,” he stated.
Nwanyanwu further contended that the court ignored critical evidence before arriving at its decision.
“In his own wisdom, he didn’t look at them because he was working on a script. I dare say he worked on a script because if he had seen those certificates of return, it would be different.
“The plaintiff went to the Court of Appeal to persuade the Court of Appeal to set aside his stay of execution on the case before the lower court. That matter is coming up tomorrow. So, he decided to give his judgment today. It’s going to be interesting,” he pointed out.
A political analyst, Jide Ojo, argued that the plaintiffs are not members of any of the political parties and querried their interest in the matter. He added that even the association is unknown to the law.
“I think that the judgment leaves much to be desired. I was actually discussing this issue on Channels TV this morning, and my own position is that those who even filed the suit are unknown to law, National Association of Former Legislators or something. What is the mischief that they want to achieve? What is the injury they suffered?
“One of them, the other head is said to be allegedly working in the office of Chief of Staff to the President. You ask yourself, INEC is the one that is statutorily mandated by Section 225C of the Constitution to deregister parties. The same INEC has to say that ABC met all the requirements to participate in the election.
“There is a Court of Appeal ruling for self-proceeding by lower courts till October 10th, or thereabouts. It has also come out that ADC, as at 2023 actually met the threshold as two House of Representatives members from Congress, one Honorable Leke Abejide from Kogi State.
“So, on what basis are you deregistering the House of Representatives? And assuming that you want to argue that, okay, look, ADC and Leke may have defected from ADC, but several other legislators have defected into ADC, particularly when Peter Obi joined the party. And then, that even when Peter Obi be left, there are still some Honorable Members,” he said.
Ojo added that “in fact, the current Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Dasuki, from Sokoto State, is now representing ADC in the House of Representatives.
“So, it is not every one of the legislators that came in with Peter Obi that left. Some from other states, from what I gathered are in ADC.
“And if it is true that that INEC swore an affidavit that ADC met the constitutional requirement to participate in the 2027 election, what is the ground, what is the interest of this faceless group, calling themselves association of former legislators, to have gone to court, if they are not even members of any of the five political parties?
“So, if it is a member that has gone to court and said our party should be deregistered because we didn’t meet these conditions, then you would say he has a locus. But what is the locus of those who petitioned or took this case to court?
“I think the ruling party is trying to be mischievous. And they know that this will not stand, but they just want to distract these political parties that are contesting. So, it’s a shadow boxing, in my own view.”
