The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Friday, imposed a fine of N1 million on David Atita, lawyer to the deregistered political party, Liberation Movement, for filing what it described as a frivolous, time-wasting appeal.
The defunct party, had through Mr Atita, challenged the 24 July 2020 judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja upholding its deregistration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to meet the constitutional requirements of election victories in the 2019 general elections, as stipulated in Section 225(a) of the Nigerian constitution.
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The party asked the Court of Appeal to determine whether INEC had the legal authority to deregister it and whether the trial court did not err in dismissing its suit.
However, in a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, the Court of Appeal held that the appeal was a needless academic exercise, noting that the Supreme Court had settled similar issues in 2021 in the case of National Unity Party v. INEC.
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Okon Abang, who delivered the lead judgement, criticised the appellant’s counsel for what he termed a “stubborn and hardened” approach, saying that Mr Atita ignored advice from INEC’s lawyer to withdraw the appeal, despite clear precedents established by the apex court.
“The appeal, argued in November last year, was a complete waste of judicial time,” Mr Abang said.
“The appellant failed to provide any evidence to support its claim that it met the constitutional threshold required to remain a registered political party.”
He further held that the Court of Appeal lacked the power to reinterpret the “clear and unambiguous” provisions of Section 225(a) of the 1999 Constitution, which outline the minimum requirements for political party registration.”
Mr Abang praised the Federal High Court’s handling of the case, affirming that its interpretation of the constitutional provision was sound and could not be faulted by the appellant.
He consequently dismissed the appeal and ordered Mr Atita to personally pay N1 million to INEC as a punitive cost for pursuing the case without merit.
The lower court, presided over by Anwuli Chikere (now retired), had earlier ruled that the Liberation Movement’s deregistration was justified, as the party failed to win any of the elective positions outlined in the constitution.
With this ruling, the appellate court reaffirmed INEC’s power to deregister political parties that fail to meet the constitutionally mandated performance benchmarks.
The Supreme Court has firmly established a precedent on INEC’s power to deregister political parties based on the yardsticks stipulated in the constitution.
On 7 May 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the deregistration of the National Unity Party (NUP) by INEC, affirming the earlier decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja on the matter.
Both the NUP and the Liberation Movement were part of the 74 political parties deregistered by INEC in February 2020.
They were deregistered based on the provisions section 225(a) of the Nigerian constitution, which empower INEC to deregister any political party.
The said constitutional provision spells out the minimum election victory a party or percentage of votes it must secure to remain registered as a political party.
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It stipulates that INEC shall have the power to deregister political parties on the grounds of:
(b) failure to win at least twenty-five percent of votes cast in-
(i) one State of the Federation in a Presidential election, or
(ii) one Local Government of the State in a Governorship election.
(c) failure to win at least-
(i) one ward in the Chairmanship election,
(ii) one seat in the National or State House of Assembly election, or
(iii) one seat in the Councillorship election.
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