The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set aside a judgment that had directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister the African Democratic Congress and four other political parties. The appellate court delivered its decision in a unanimous ruling by a three-member panel of justices.
The court held that the order which the Federal High Court had issued to the electoral body amounted to a nullity. It found that the High Court had wrongly assumed jurisdiction and had made the order on an incompetent suit.
In the lead judgment, read by Justice Abba Mohamed, the panel ruled that the case had been filed by a non-juristic entity and that there was therefore no valid suit that could have warranted the consequential order to deregister the parties.
According to the court, because the suit was incompetent, the parties named in it remained duly registered. The appellate court allowed the separate appeals that had been filed by the political parties against the earlier judgment.
Aside from the African Democratic Congress, the other parties whose registration was restored by the ruling are the Action People's Party, Action Alliance, the Accord Party and the Zenith Labour Party.
The court also awarded monetary costs against the National Forum of former legislators, the body that had brought the original case seeking the deregistration of the parties.
With the appellate court's decision, the order that would have removed the parties from the register has been overturned, restoring the legal status of the African Democratic Congress and the other affected parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.