….Overrules court of appeal stay order
By Vivian Okejeme
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Monday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to deregister five political parties for failing to meet the constitutional threshold.
The ruling was in fragrant disobedience to the order of the Court of Appeal which ordered the lower court to stay proceeding on the matter, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal before it.
The certify true copy of the appellate’s court order, signed by David U. Mike, HOD Litigation, was premises on Order 4 rule 10 and 11 of the court of appeal rules, 2021.
The parties affected are African Democratic Congress, ADC, Actions People’s Party, APP, Action Alliance, AA, Zenith Labour Party, ZLP and Accord Party, AP.
By this judgement, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the ADC and Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, may not be fielded for the 2027 Presidential and governorship elections respectively.
Delivering the ruling, the court said the parties did not meet the Constitutional threshold of section 225 of the 1999 Constitution.
Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution gives the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) the power to deregister parties that failed to meet the constitutional threshold.
The Plaintiff, the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators was before the court praying it to deregister the parties.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026 mentioned Attorney General of Federation AGF and INEC as Respondents.
The plaintiff told the court that the effected parties failed to secure at least 25 percent of in prescribed election to remain relevant under the law.
Recall that the court, had at the last adjourned date dismissed an application for stay of proceedings as well as applications seeking to be joined as an interested party.
The court held that granting a stay of proceedings at this stage would cause hardship on the litigants, especially as political parties were already expected to submit names of candidates ahead of upcoming elections.
Also, it stated that the Supreme Court had repeatedly cautioned lower courts against granting undue stay of proceedings, adding that since the applicants had already approached the Court of Appeal, the trial court should be allowed to conclude hearing of the matter unless otherwise directed by the appellate court.
Consequently, it dismissed the applications seeking to be joined in the suit by 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th defendants.
The applicants included incumbent governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke and a governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Oluwafemi Abayomi Adebambi both of the Accord party, and Hon Sani Yakubu Noma of the ADC.
On the application by counsel to the APP, Peter Abang, seeking dismissal of the suit on grounds that issues raised had already been argued before the appellate court, the court said it would consider the decision of the Court of Appeal as relates to the matter alongside issues raised by parties before delivering judgment.
He subsequently directed parties to amend and adopt their final processes in line with the accelerated hearing earlier ordered by the court.
During adoption of processes, Yakubu Abdullahi Ruba, SAN, who represented the plaintiff, the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators, submitted that the affected political parties failed to satisfy constitutional requirements relating to electoral spread and performance.
Ruba relied on Supreme Court authorities, contending that political parties were required to secure at least 25 per cent of votes in prescribed elections to retain relevance under the law.
He urged the court to order the deregistration of the parties, insisting that none of the defendants had successfully countered the argument.
Counsel the AGF, Mr A. Abdulrahman, told the court that the AGF had constitutional powers to defend and support actions aimed at ensuring compliance with the Constitution.
He, therefore, urged the court to consider whether the political parties listed as third to seventh defendants had breached constitutional provisions.
