BREAKING: Appeal Cout Overturns Judgment Ordering INEC to Deregister ADC, Four Others

The Court of Appeal has overturned the judgment of the Federal High Court that ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), declaring the earlier decision null and void.

The appellate court’s decision also affects the Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), all of which had been listed in the Federal High Court’s deregistration order.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by a three-member panel led by Justice Abba Mohammed, the Court of Appeal held that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter in the first place. The court consequently set aside the entire judgment and nullified the order directing INEC to deregister the affected political parties.

While delivering the judgment, the appellate court described the decision of the lower court as “a nullity” and ruled that the order for the deregistration of the parties could not stand.

The court further criticised the actions of the trial court, stating, “What the learned trial court did amounted to judicial impertinence or what the Supreme Court called judicial insubordination.”

According to the appellate court, the Federal High Court ought not to have proceeded with the delivery of its judgment because the Court of Appeal had already ordered a stay of proceedings in the matter, an order that also covered the delivery of judgment.

The appellate court held that by going ahead to deliver its judgment despite the subsisting stay of proceedings, the lower court acted outside its authority.

The panel also found that the first respondent lacked the legal standing to institute the suit in the first place. It ruled that the respondent had no locus standi to bring the action before the court, making the entire proceedings incompetent from the outset.