The Court of Appeal has reinstated the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties after nullifying a Federal High Court judgment that ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister them.
Delivering a unanimous judgment in Abuja on Tuesday, a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Abba Mohammed, held that the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit that culminated in the deregistration order.
The appellate court ruled that the action before the Federal High Court was incompetent because it was instituted by a non-juristic body, making the entire proceedings and the judgment a nullity.
According to the court, there was no competent suit upon which the trial court could validly direct INEC to strike the parties off its register.
It further held that the trial court failed to properly evaluate the evidence before it, particularly documents showing that the affected political parties had won elective positions in previous elections, contrary to the findings contained in the judgment.
The appellate court also criticised the Federal High Court for proceeding with the case despite an earlier directive to suspend proceedings pending the determination of an interlocutory appeal.
The panel held that the lower court ought to have dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction and lack of merit instead of proceeding to determine the substantive issues.
It consequently allowed the appeals filed by the affected political parties and INEC, restored the registration of the parties and awarded costs against the National Forum of Former Legislators, which instituted the action.
The judgment affects the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), all of which the appellate court declared remain duly registered political parties.
The Court of Appeal had earlier, on June 16, ordered a stay of execution of the Federal High Court's judgment pending the hearing of the appeals.
In its decision, the appellate court faulted the conduct of the trial judge, Justice Peter Lifu, for delivering judgment despite an order issued on May 22 directing him to halt proceedings pending the outcome of an interlocutory appeal.
The court observed that Justice Lifu proceeded with the matter even after his attention had been drawn to the subsisting order.
Describing the action as "a form of judicial impertinence," the appellate court cited a Supreme Court decision which held that a judge who acts in defiance of a valid court order engages in conduct amounting to "judicial rascality."
Justice Lifu had, in the earlier judgment, directed INEC to deregister the five political parties on the grounds that they failed to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration. He also restrained the electoral commission from recognising the parties or accepting candidates sponsored by them ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, was filed by the National Forum of Former Legislators, which argued that the parties had failed to satisfy the electoral performance benchmarks prescribed under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC regulations.
The plaintiff maintained that the parties neither secured at least 25 per cent of votes in any state during a presidential election nor won elective offices at the federal, state or local government levels, and therefore no longer qualified to remain on INEC's register.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), supported the suit, contending that retaining the affected parties would undermine the integrity of Nigeria's electoral system.
However, the Court of Appeal disagreed, setting aside the entire judgment of the Federal High Court and restoring the legal status of the five political parties.
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