On June 15, 2026, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister five opposition parties: the African Democratic Congress, Action Alliance, Action Peoples Party, Accord Party and Zenith Labour Party. One day later, the Court of Appeal told him he had no business doing it.
The suit came from a group calling itself the National Forum of Former Legislators. It argued that the five parties missed the benchmarks in Section 225A of the Constitution, which asks a party to win at least 25 per cent of the vote in a state during a presidential election or take at least one elective seat at the federal, state or local level. The plaintiffs said the parties did badly in the 2023 general elections and later by-elections, and that keeping them registered weakened the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
A political scientist writing in Punch called that claim untrue. The parties, he wrote, did win legislative seats in 2023 and in later local government elections.
Lifu’s ruling went further than deregistration. It barred the parties from taking part in elections or any political activity, including campaigns, rallies and primaries, and told INEC not to recognise them or do official business with them until they complied.
Appeal Court steps in
On Tuesday, June 16, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal rebuked the judge in strong terms. It called his conduct “judicial rascality” and “judicial impertinence.” According to the account in Punch, the panel said Lifu had flouted its May 22 order directing him to put all proceedings in the matter on hold. By delivering judgment anyway, the panel held, he showed the “gravest form of judicial misconduct” and a brazen violation of judicial hierarchy.
The three-member panel, led by Justice A. B. Mohammed, suspended execution of the deregistration order and set a date for a full hearing on the case itself.
Timing and accusations
The columnist, who describes himself as a political scientist and psephologist, said the timing alarms him. The 2027 general elections are about six months off. The parties have finished their primaries and are about to upload nominee details to INEC’s Candidate Nomination Portal. He called the move political brinksmanship and said the courts have taken over a role that belongs to INEC.
Opposition parties point at the Presidency. The Presidency has vehemently denied involvement, though the columnist added that a denial does not prove innocence. He listed what he called supporting evidence: violence against ADC offices and members in Kaduna, Lagos, Ekiti, Edo and Cross Rivers, and leadership fights that split the ADC into three factions, loyal to David Mark, Dumebi Kachikwu and Nafiu Bala. He also cited a viral video in which Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila urged Leke Abejide, then of the ADC, to “stay in ADC, fight them, scatter them, we like what you’re doing.” And it has been alleged, he wrote, that the leader of the former legislators’ group works in the Chief of Staff’s office.
His point about numbers: the ruling party already has 31 of 36 state governors and more than a two-thirds majority in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the state assemblies.
Other registration rulings
The deregistration fight is one of several. On Friday, June 26, the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, set aside Judge Isah Dashen’s own December 10, 2025 judgment ordering INEC to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress, saying all relevant parties must be heard first. The columnist noted that most legal opinion holds the judge should have sent the plaintiff to appeal instead.
Then on Monday, June 29, Lifu ordered INEC to give an access code, within 72 hours, to the Akin Rickett-led leadership of the All Democratic Alliance, and to reopen its registration portal for one week so the group could upload its membership register and other documents. The columnist recalled that the Nigerian Democratic Congress and the National Democratic Party were dissolved in February on court orders, and said INEC should appeal such rulings rather than simply comply.
