The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has reversed the de-registration of 74 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court has 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.
The court has subsequently ordered that the 74 deregistered parties should be relisted as registered political parties in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that on 6 February 2020, INEC had deregistered the political parties for failing to meet constitutional requirements that determine the continuous existence of political parties in the country.
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made the announcement of the deregisration of the 74 parties at a press conference in Abuja.
INEC had argued that a review of the performance of parties after the 2019 general elections led to the deregistration of the parties.
With the deregistration, the parties in Nigeria reduced to 18.
More to follow…
