The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has backed five political parties in their bid to halt a court order deregistering the parties.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court had on Monday ordered the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for allegedly not meeting the conditions for retaining their registration.
INEC, on Tuesday, told a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal that the ruling came as a surprise.
According to the electoral umpire, it only learnt of the ruling through the media despite an earlier Court of Appeal order issued on May 22 for a stay of proceedings.
Haliru Mohammed, counsel for the commission, said: “My Lords, we are aware of an order that this court made on May 22, which stopped the delivery of the judgement of the lower court, which was initially reserved for delivery on June 5.”
“We were not aware of any notice from the court regarding the delivery of the judgement. We only saw it as breaking news in the media.”
“We therefore do not oppose the application of the appellant to stay the execution of the judgement,” he added.
Shuaibu Aruwa, counsel for the ADC, told the court that they were notified of the judgment through WhatsApp.
“Sincerely, my Lords, a lot has happened to the judiciary and this profession. What the trial judge did was dare this court of appeal by insisting that no one could arrest his judgement, even after his attention was drawn to the stay order from this court,” he said.
“The action of the trial judge calls for swift and extraordinary measures from this court. We have come to the stage where this court should press the reset button.”
He urged the court to suspend the judgement to protect the integrity of its own orders.
(The Whistler)
