The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division has reserved judgment in the appeals filed by five political parties in the country challenging the court ruling directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to deregister them.
The five parties are the Action Peoples Party, APP, Action Alliance, AA, Accord Party, AP, Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, Accord and African Democratic Congress, ADC.
A three-man panel of justices of the court, led by Justice Abba Mohammed, said on Tuesday that the date for ruling on the matter will be communicated to all contending parties.
Recall that Justice Peter Lifu of the federal high court, Abuja, the nation’s capital had last month ordered the commission to deregister the five parties after because they failed to meet a provisions in the Electoral Act, which requires political parties to win at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or winning at least one elective office at the federal, state, or local government level.
Justice Lifu gave the ruling in a suit filed by the National Forum of Former Legislators, NFFL.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, the NFFL prayed the court to determine whether INEC has the powers to under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2022 and its regulations to deregister political parties which failed to meet the constitutional requirement.
The lower court had agreed with the plaintiff, in a judgment delivered on June 16, 2026, t0 the effect that the five parties had failed to meet the legal requirements to remain as registered political parties in the country, and thus ordered their deregistration.
After listening to all parties in the matter, the appellate court said yesterday that the date of the judgment will be communicated to them accordingly.
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