This was never a straightforward registration. The Nigeria Democratic Congress got its legal foothold on December 10, 2025, when a Federal High Court in Lokoja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to list it as a political party. That order came from a lawsuit.
But a critical party was missing from the room. The Peace Movement Party was never called into court.
It owns the logo the NDC used to secure that registration order. That fact matters. Justice Isah Dashen took a second look at the case and found the earlier judgment had harmed the Peace Movement Party’s interests.
On Friday, he set aside his own court’s December order. He did not simply reverse a single decision.
He ordered everyone back to the positions they held before December 10, as if that judgment had never happened. Think of the mechanics. INEC had already acted on the December ruling.
It registered the NDC. The party fielded candidates. Peter Obi ran as its presidential candidate.
The NDC caucus sat in the House of Representatives. All of that activity now rests on a legal foundation that a judge has declared unsound.
The practical effect, as counsel C.S. Ekeocha put it, is that all necessary parties must now be joined before the case starts fresh from scratch. The NDC insists it has not been deregistered.
No order says that, the party argues. It has told members that party activities will continue without interruption.
But the court’s action effectively rolls back every step INEC took after the December ruling. That is a precarious position for any political organization, especially one that had begun functioning as a registered party. The backlash came fast and from across the opposition.
Peter Obi condemned the judgment. The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party joined him. So did members of the NDC caucus in the House of Representatives, the Obidient Movement, and the Kwankwasiyya Movement.
Their allegation is direct: this judgment is part of a broader attempt to weaken opposition parties. The NDC has said it will appeal.
That appeal will take time. Meanwhile, the Peace Movement Party now has a seat at the table it was denied in December. The case will be heard again from the beginning, with all parties present.
That is the process. But process does not pause politics.
A party that was operating as a registered entity now faces a legal vacuum, and its opponents are calling the ruling a coordinated attack. This is not a simple dispute over paperwork. The court itself acknowledged it had made a mistake by excluding a party with a direct interest in the outcome.
That correction, however necessary, has thrown the NDC’s legal status into uncertainty. The party says it continues to exist. The court says the order that created it never should have been issued.
Both cannot be true at the same time, and the appeal will determine which one holds.
Sources
- Court voids Nigeria Democratic Congress registration order…
- NDC Party Registration Voided: Obi's Aide Responds
