Respite has come the way of members of the African Democratic Congress, as the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday set aside the June 15 judgment asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister ADC and four other political parties in the country.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had ordered INEC to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties for allegedly failing to meet the 25 per cent constitutional threshold for continued existence as political parties.
The other parties whose registration the appellate court restored are the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
In an unanimous judgment on Tuesday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Abba Mohammed, held that the Federal High Court was wrong to assume jurisdiction over the suit filed by a group – the registered trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL) – which was a non-juridical entity at the time it filed the suit.
The Court of Appeal, which held that the plaintiff at the trial court was not a registered entity at the time it filed the suit.
It therefore faulted the Federal High Court for allowing the NFFL to amend the suit, noting that it was wrong to allow the amendment of an incompetent suit.
According to the Court of Appeal, there was no valid suit that could have warranted the consequential order directing INEC to derecognise the political parties.
It noted that the trial court failed to properly evaluate the evidence placed before it, stressing that proof that the parties won various seats in previous elections was ignored.
It also held that the Federal High Court acted in defiance of a May 22 order of the Court of Appeal that directed it to stay further proceedings in the case.
It held that the Federal High Court ought to have dismissed the substantive case for want of jurisdiction and merit.
It also held that the high court acted in defiance of an order that directed it to stay proceedings in the case.
It held that the high court ought to have dismissed the substantive case for want of jurisdiction and merit.
Consequently, the appellate court, in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Abba Mohammed, held that all the affected political parties remained duly registered.
It allowed separate appeals filed by the political parties and awarded monetary costs against the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL), which had filed the case against them.
It will be recalled that the appellate court had, on June 16, ordered a stay of execution of the High Court judgment, even as it slammed the trial judge for disregarding the judicial hierarchy.
The panel berated Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja for disobeying an order it had made on May 22 directing him to stay proceedings in the case pending the outcome of an appeal by the parties.
It noted that even though the trial judge’s attention had been drawn to the order for a stay of proceedings, he intentionally flouted it and went ahead to deliver judgment.
It held that Justice Lifu’s action was “a form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court had previously held that a judge who acts in such a manner “is unfit for the bench, as the conduct amounts to judicial rascality”.
The NFFL had, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, 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.
It was the plaintiffs’ position that the five political parties listed as defendants had persistently failed to meet the constitutional benchmarks required to retain their registration.
The former legislators stressed that the requirements include winning at least 25 per cent of the votes in a state during a presidential election, or securing at least one elective seat at the national, state, or local government level.
