Court  declares de-registration of 74 political parties by INEC  unlawful

...Its conflicting judgement, ll be challenged -INEC

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has Monday, ordered  the reversal of the de-registration of 74 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in January 2020.

The Court led by Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem the new President of the Court has by this pronouncement, set aside the judgement of Federal High Court that upheld INEC’s actions saying the de-registration exercise was illegal for not following due process.

It therefore ordered that the 74 deregistered parties be relisted as registered political parties in Nigeria.

When contacted the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye said INEC will study the judgement and obviously appeal the judgement.

He said the same Court of Appeal had some time ago handed down a judgement authorizing the commission to de-register political parties, wonders why this conflicting judgement.

INEC had early in the year deregistered 74 political parties stating they would not be participating in subsequent elections in the country, that the deregistration followed the poor performance of the parties in the 2019 general elections.

It stated that the 74 political parties did not satisfy the requirements of the Fourth Alteration to the Constitutional Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).