Court of Appeal postpones hearing in ADC, other parties' deregistration appeal

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has rescheduled the hearing of an appeal challenging the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party and three other political parties to 7 July.

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The appeal stems from a Federal High Court judgement that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the five parties.

The appellate court shifted the hearing after lawyers informed the panel that the record of appeal and the Federal High Court’s judgement were only recently transmitted, making it necessary for parties to file and exchange their briefs of argument before the appeal can be heard.

On 16 June, the Court of Appeal halted the enforcement of the judgement pending the determination of the appeal and fixed Thursday (25 June) for hearing.

However, when the matter came up on Thursday, the panel of Justices postponed proceedings till 7 July to allow parties in the case to file and exchange their briefs of argument ahead of the hearing.

During the Thursday’s proceedings, Musibau Adetunbi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who appeared for Accord Party, told the three-member panel that the record of appeal and the Federal High Court’s judgement were only received on Monday and subsequently transmitted to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Adetunbi then sought a short adjournment to enable parties file and exchange the necessary processes before the appeal is heard.

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None of the parties opposed the request.

Following the application, Judge Abubakar Mohammed, who presided over the panel, adjourned the matter until 7 July at 2 p.m.

Although Mr Adetunbi asked for three days to complete the filing and exchange of briefs, the judge explained that some members of the panel would be away from Abuja next week for a special court session elsewhere.

Background

The appeal arose from a dispute over the deregistration of five opposition political parties by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In a unanimous ruling delivered on 16 June, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal criticised Judge Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court for proceeding with judgement despite an earlier order of the appellate court halting further action in the case.

Judge Mohammed, who delivered the lead ruling, described the judge’s decision to deregister the parties in defiance of the Court of Appeal’s order as “judicial impertinence.”

The appellate court’s intervention came less than 24 hours after Mr Lifu ordered INEC to deregister ADC, Accord Party, Action Alliance, Action Peoples Party and Zenith Labour Party.

The judgement followed a suit filed by the National Forum of Former Legislators against INEC and the affected parties. The group asked the court to compel INEC to remove the parties from its register, alleging that they failed to satisfy constitutional requirements for retaining their registration under Section 225(a) of the Constitution.

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Despite being informed by lawyers to some of the affected parties that an appeal was already pending before the Court of Appeal, Mr Lifu proceeded with the judgement on 15 June. He held that no valid stay order had been served on the court and that the matter was ripe for determination.

He subsequently directed INEC to deregister the five parties.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, who was joined as a defendant in the suit, supported the case.

INEC, however, opposed the action at the trial court and later approached the Court of Appeal, seeking a stay of execution of the judgement. This led to the appellate court’s 16 June order suspending the enforcement of the deregistration pending the determination of the appeal.