Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Jibrin Okutepa, has criticised the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister five political parties.
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The parties affected by the judgment are the African Democratic Congress, Accord Party, African Alliance, Action Peoples Party, and Zenith Labour Party.
The judgment was delivered in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2025, filed by the Incorporated Trustees of National Forum of Former Legislators against INEC and others.
Reacting to the judgment, Okutepa said an independent and strong judiciary remains the foundation of democracy, rule of law and due process in any society.
According to him, the judiciary is so central to Nigeria’s constitutional order that even under military regimes, the institution was not dissolved.
He said it was against that background that the judgment of the Federal High Court deserved close examination, particularly because it touched on the continued existence of political parties under the 1999 Constitution.
Okutepa noted that the affected parties were ordered to be deregistered for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for their continued existence as political parties.
He said the relevant constitutional provision relied on was Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution, introduced by the Fourth Alteration Act No. 9 of 2017.
The section empowers INEC to deregister a political party for breach of registration requirements or failure to win at least 25 percent of votes cast in one state in a presidential election, one seat in the National Assembly, one seat in a State House of Assembly, one chairmanship seat in a local government or area council election, or one councillorship seat.
Okutepa acknowledged that INEC’s power under Section 225A had been upheld by the courts, including in INEC v. Advanced Congress of Democrats, where the Court of Appeal affirmed INEC’s constitutional authority to deregister political parties that fail to satisfy the conditions under the Constitution.
He explained that before the Fourth Alteration, INEC had relied on provisions of the Electoral Act to deregister political parties, but courts questioned that power because it was not expressly granted by the Constitution.
He said the insertion of Section 225A resolved that controversy by expressly vesting the power to deregister political parties in INEC.
However, the senior lawyer argued that before such power could be exercised, the affected political parties must have failed to meet the constitutional requirements set out in the section.
He said he was aware that some of the parties ordered to be deregistered had members in the National Assembly and some state Houses of Assembly.
Okutepa said it would now be left for the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court to determine the validity of the Federal High Court judgment if the matter proceeds on appeal.
Despite acknowledging INEC’s constitutional power to deregister political parties, Okutepa said he completely disagreed with the Federal High Court judgment.
He argued that at the time the judgment was delivered on June 15, 2026, there was already an order of the Court of Appeal staying proceedings before the Federal High Court.
According to him, the Court of Appeal made the order on May 22, 2026, upon a motion on notice.
Okutepa said the Federal High Court was bound to obey and enforce that order under Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution.
He described any failure by a lower court to obey the order of a higher court as judicial insubordination, constitutional sacrilege and disobedience to the Constitution.
He further questioned how the trial court treated INEC’s counter-affidavit in the case.
According to him, INEC had filed a counter-affidavit on May 4, 2026, in which the commission stated that the affected political parties met the constitutional requirements for continued existence.
Okutepa also queried how the continued existence of the political parties affected the plaintiffs more than other Nigerians.
He further asked whether there was any demand made on INEC to deregister the parties before the suit was commenced.
The senior advocate also questioned what he described as the haste in the delivery of the judgment, warning that the development could set a dangerous precedent.
He said the key legal questions arising from the judgment include whether the trial court could ignore an existing order of the Court of Appeal, whether INEC’s position that the parties met the constitutional requirements was properly considered, and whether the plaintiffs had established sufficient legal basis to seek the deregistration of the parties.
Okutepa maintained that the independence of the judiciary must be protected, but insisted that courts must also obey the hierarchy of judicial authority and remain faithful to constitutional procedure.
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