By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Hundreds of aggrieved Nigerians, including party supporters, on Monday May 4, 2026, stormed the premises of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to register their displeasure with a motion aimed at deregistering some political parties, including the opposition Coalition platform the African Democratic Congress.
The Source reports that the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister for Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in a move that has jolted not a few, a couple weeks ago, filed an application seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deregister about five political parties, including Accord and ADC, citing their inability to meet the election victory threshold as a major reason for his action.
The shocking litigation from the AGF was cited by Peter Obi as part of the reasons for his sudden exit from the ADC on Sunday, as there is palpable apprehension that going by the alleged capture of the Judiciary, the case might be used to truncate the ADC’s bid to field candidates in 2027.
The protesters armed with placards of different inscriptions warned against any further attempts to use the Judiciary to hound and stifle opposition parties.
Leader of the protesters, Banki Sharrif, especially cautioned the judiciary against being used to exclude credible opposition parties and candidates from the polls .
This is as he called on President Bola Tinubu, his cronies and the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, to apply the break on their alleged orchestrated plots designed to stifle opposition voices in the country.
He expressed serious concern over what he described as a growing threat to the survival of democratic institutions and democracy itself, accusing the Government of greatly undermining critical democratic institutions including the judiciary and INEC.
According to Sharrif, Government’s persistent attempts at shutting out the opposition is an indirect admission of its failure to deliver and earn the confidence and trust of the electorate.
The leader of the protesters warned the AGF against lending his office to partisan politics. According to Sharrif, the office of the AGF is supposed to maintain neutrality and abstain from active partisan politics.
They, however, regretted that the present occupier of the office has plunged it deeply into politics, with his current litigation in pursuit of the deregistration of some opposition parties as a clear testimonial to his partisan posture.
“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately cease all forms of interference over or covert, in the judiciary.
“Courts must never be reduced to instruments of political manipulations. The moment justice is manipulated, the nation itself is placed on trial”.
“A Government that seeks to weaken opposition betrays a lack of confidence in its own legitimacy. Democracy thrives on competition. Suppressing it is not strength; it is fear.
“Elections without a credible opposition are nothing more than staged exercises. Democracy demands fairness, openness and equal opportunities for all political actors.
“The office of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, must remain firmly anchored on neutrality and the rule of law.
“It must not be weaponized for political ends.
“If the courts lend legitimacy to the Government’s tendency to stifling opposition parties and ignore strict adherence to due process and substantive just, it will be seen as judicial endorsement of political exclusion.
“That path is in itself dangerous, risks disenfranchisement, deepens division ,and could trigger widespread unrest” Sharrif warned.
The Source further reports that the protest match came barely 24 hours after Obi, a former front line ADC presidential hopeful resigned from the party owing to what he described as endless Government’s interference in all the parties he had identified with since 2023.
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