{"id":127668,"date":"2026-06-16T20:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=127668"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:07:00","slug":"breaking-appeal-court-suspends-deregistration-of-adc-four-other-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/breaking-appeal-court-suspends-deregistration-of-adc-four-other-political-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking: Appeal Court Suspends Deregistration of ADC, Four Other Political Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Azu<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday ordered a stay of execution of the judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five political parties, effectively halting any move to implement the controversial decision.<\/p>\n

A three-member panel of the court, led by Justice A.B. Mohammed, held that the Federal High Court in Abuja acted improperly by proceeding to deliver judgment despite an existing order of the appellate court directing a stay of proceedings in the matter.<\/p>\n

The decision followed complaints by affected political parties that Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court delivered judgment on Monday in defiance of an order made by the Court of Appeal on May 22.<\/p>\n

Justice Lifu had ordered INEC to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Action Peoples Party (APP), holding that the parties failed to meet the constitutional requirements under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution, having not won elective positions in the last general election.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday’s proceedings, counsel to Accord Party, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), informed the appellate court that Justice Lifu proceeded with the judgment despite being aware of the subsisting order staying further proceedings.<\/p>\n

Adetunbi explained that the Court of Appeal had, on May 22, granted an order directing the lower court to suspend proceedings pending the determination of an appeal arising from an earlier ruling delivered on May 20.<\/p>\n

According to him, the order was issued by a panel comprising Justices Mohammed Danjuma, Adebukola Banjoko and Oyejoju Oyewumi.<\/p>\n

He said all parties had been duly notified and relevant court processes, including an affidavit of facts, had been filed before the affected parties unexpectedly received notice that judgment would be delivered on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Myself and counsel to the 4th respondent and 6th respondent (APP) drew his lordship’s attention to your lordships’ order. His lordship ignored your lordships’ order and proceeded to deliver judgment.<\/p>\n

“My noble lords, for over 25 years of my practice, I have never seen such a direct affront in the administration of justice. The judgment was delivered in clear violation of your lordship’s order and a gross violation of Section 287(2) of the Nigerian Constitution, which his lordship swore to protect,” Adetunbi said.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing the political parties urged the appellate court to invoke its disciplinary powers in relation to the conduct of the lower court.<\/p>\n

Counsel to INEC, I.S. Mohammed, told the court that the electoral commission was not aware of what transpired before the Federal High Court on Monday and was not opposed to the positions canvassed by either side.<\/p>\n

Counsel to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Prof. J.O. Oladoke, adopted a similar position.<\/p>\n

However, counsel to the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL), Yakubu Ruba (SAN), opposed the applications by the political parties.<\/p>\n

Ruba argued that his client was not served with the notice of appeal that led to the May 22 stay of proceedings and only became aware of it through another lawyer, Gbenga Makanjuola.<\/p>\n

He consequently urged the appellate court to set aside the stay order on the grounds that it was made without affording his client a fair hearing.<\/p>\n

While indicating his readiness to respond to the substantive appeal, Ruba maintained that the lower court’s judgment had rendered the issue academic.<\/p>\n

“The order of 22nd May, 2026, has been overtaken by events as the lower court has delivered its judgment,” he argued.<\/p>\n

After hearing submissions from all parties, the Court of Appeal ordered a stay of execution of the Federal High Court judgment pending the determination of the appeal.<\/p>\n

The ruling means INEC cannot, for now, take any steps toward deregistering the ADC, AA, Accord Party, ZLP and APP until the appellate court resolves the dispute over the legality of the lower court proceedings.<\/p>\n

The case has intensified scrutiny of the relationship between the lower courts and appellate courts, particularly regarding compliance with orders issued by superior courts in politically sensitive matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Azu The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday ordered a stay of execution of the judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five political…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking: Appeal Court Suspends Deregistration of ADC, Four Other Political Parties - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/breaking-appeal-court-suspends-deregistration-of-adc-four-other-political-parties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking: Appeal Court Suspends Deregistration of ADC, Four Other Political Parties - 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