The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved judgment in the appeals filed by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) against a Federal High Court judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister them.
A three-member panel headed by Justice Abba Bello Mohammed announced on Tuesday that judgment would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all parties after lawyers concluded the adoption of their written arguments.
During the proceedings, counsel to the Accord Party, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), urged the appellate court to overturn the lower court’s decision, insisting that the judgment could not stand in law.
He argued that Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court wrongly arrived at conclusions that lacked legal foundation.
Adetunbi maintained that the trial court committed fundamental errors in its findings and appealed to the Court of Appeal to invalidate the judgment in the interest of justice.
The appeals arose from the ruling delivered by Justice Lifu in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, where the Federal High Court directed INEC to remove the five political parties from its register for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional conditions required to retain their registration.
The court also prohibited the electoral commission from recognising the affected parties, accepting candidates sponsored by them or allowing them to participate in the 2027 general elections.
In addition, the trial court restrained the parties from presenting themselves as duly registered political parties after upholding the case instituted by the National Forum of Former Legislators.
Represented by its counsel, Rabo Mohammed, the forum argued that INEC was constitutionally obligated under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Electoral Act and the commission’s regulations to deregister political parties that failed to satisfy the prescribed electoral performance benchmarks.
According to the plaintiffs, the affected parties neither secured at least 25 per cent of votes in any state during the presidential election nor won any elective office at the federal, state or local government levels in the 2023 general elections and subsequent by-elections.
They therefore contended that allowing the parties to remain registered violated the Constitution.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who was joined as a party in the suit, aligned with the plaintiffs’ position.
He argued that retaining the affected political parties on INEC’s register was inconsistent with constitutional provisions and weakened the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
The Attorney-General further maintained that unless the court intervened, INEC would continue to act in breach of its constitutional obligations.
Unhappy with the verdict, the five political parties, alongside INEC, approached the Court of Appeal seeking to have the judgment set aside.
Earlier, on June 16, the appellate court suspended the execution of the Federal High Court’s decision pending the hearing and determination of the appeals.
In that ruling, the Court of Appeal also faulted Justice Lifu for continuing with proceedings despite an earlier order issued on May 22 directing him to halt the case until the determination of an interlocutory appeal.
The appellate court described the trial judge’s conduct as “a form of judicial impertinence” and observed that the Supreme Court had previously characterised similar actions as “judicial rascality” and behaviour unbecoming of a judicial officer.
Following the adoption of final briefs on Tuesday, the appellate panel, comprising Justices Abba Bello Mohammed, Donatus Okorowo and Oyebisi Oyewumi, reserved judgment and informed the parties that they would be notified once a date for its delivery is fixed.
(Ripples)