The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday reserved judgement in appeals challenging the Federal High Court’s decision ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five opposition political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The rest of the parties affected by the deregistration order are Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
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A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Abba Mohammed fixed no date for judgment after lawyers adopted their written briefs and presented final arguments on Tuesday. The panel said it would notify the parties when the judgement is ready.
The appeals were filed by ADC, APP, AA, Accord, ZLP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which were sued as defendants at the Federal High Court.
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In their separate appeals, they sought to overturn the judgement delivered by Judge Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The appellants’ lawyers, including Musibau Adetunbi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), urged the court to grant their appeals and set aside the lower court’s judgement.
However, Yakubu Ruba, also a SAN, who represented the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL) the plaintiff at the Federal High Court, asked the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeals and award substantial costs against the appellants.
Court dismisses application concerning AA
Before hearing the appeals on Tuesday, the court dismissed an application by a faction of AA seeking to replace the party’s lawyer in one of the appeals.
The application, filed by the faction led by Adekunle Omoaje, asked the court to remove Yakubu Mahdi as the party’s lawyer and replace him with Adedola Adedoye.
The rival faction, led by Kenneth Udeze, opposed the request. It argued that earlier court decisions recognised its leadership as the lawful leadership of the party and that only it could appoint lawyers to act for the party.
Mr Udeze also argued that the application amounted to an abuse of the court process because the leadership dispute was already before the Supreme Court.
In a unanimous ruling, the appellate court held that Mr Mahdi was properly instructed by the recognised leadership of the party and remains AA’s lawful lawyer in the appeal.
The court also declined the request to make pronouncements on entries on INEC’s portal. It held that the issue did not arise from the interlocutory application before it.
The panel added that previous judgments recognising the party’s leadership remain valid and binding until the Supreme Court decides otherwise.
The court dismissed the application and ordered the Omoaje faction to pay N500,000 costs to the respondents.
Backstory
The dispute began after the NFFL sued INEC, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and five opposition political parties.
The group asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to compel INEC to deregister ADC, Accord, AA, APP and ZLP. It argued that the parties no longer satisfied the constitutional conditions for continued registration under Section 225(a) of the Constitution to retain their registration status.
According to the NFFL, the parties performed poorly in the 2023 general elections and subsequent by-elections, making their continued recognition by INEC unconstitutional and detrimental to the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral system.
The AGF and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, a SAN, who was a defendant at the trial court, supported the plaintiffs’ position.
He argued that INEC was under a constitutional obligation to deregister parties that no longer satisfied the requirements for registration.
The case quickly assumed national significance because some of the affected parties had become platforms for prominent politicians ahead of the 2027 general elections and off-cycle governorship polls scheduled for this year.
It also came at a time the ADC emerged as a major opposition platform after attracting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other key opposition figures.
The Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election bid has as thrusted the Accord Party into public consciousness as the 15 August governorship election in the state approaches.
Before Judge Lifu’s judgement, the appellate court had intervened in the proceedings.
On 22 May, the court ordered Judge Lifu to stay further proceedings pending the determination of an interlocutory appeal.
The appeal stemmed from Mr Lifu’s rejection and application by Governor Adeleke to join the suit because of his political interest in Accord. Lawyers later served the appellate court’s enrolment order on the trial court.
Despite the appellate court’s directive, Judge Lifu delivered judgement deregistering all five political parties on 15 June.
He ordered INEC to deregister the five parties, directed the electoral commission to remove them from its register and held that they could not participate in future elections unless the decision was set aside.
He ruled that no valid order prevented him from delivering judgment.
However, dissatisfied with the judgment, INEC and the affected political parties appealed the judgment, urging the appellate court to set aside the decision.
Less than 24 hours later, the appellate court suspended the judgement.
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In the unanimous ruling of the panel led A. Muhammed, the appeal court held that Judge Lifu acted in disregard of its earlier order of stay proceedings.
The panel described his conduct as “judicial impertinence” and “judicial rascality” before staying the execution of the deregistration order pending the determination of the appeal.
The litigation also triggered wider reactions. INEC, which had opposed the suit at the trial court, sought a stay of execution at the appellate court.
A civil society organisation later petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC’) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), urging them to investigate the judge’s conduct over the judgment delivered despite the subsisting appellate court order.
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