ADC’s deregistration is pure judicial banditry: by Farooq Kperogi

Today’s Federal High Court judgment ordering INEC to deregister the African Democratic Congress is difficult to understand as anything other than politically engineered judicial violence against democratic pluralism.

The reported reason for the judgment is that the ADC failed to meet the constitutional threshold for continued registration as a political party. But that is plainly false.

In the 2023 elections, the ADC won two House of Representatives seats in Kogi State: Ijumu/Kabba Bunu and Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopa Muro. It also won a seat in the Kogi State House of Assembly. This is all in INEC’s public record.

Section 225A of the Constitution permits deregistration only when a party fails to win the required electoral foothold, including at least one seat in the National Assembly or a State House of Assembly. The ADC met that requirement. A judgment that says otherwise is pure judicial banditry.

Even if some ADC elected officials later defected to other parties, that does not cancel the fact that they were elected on the ADC platform in 2023. Defection is not retroactive electoral defeat. A party that won seats cannot be treated as a party that won none.

Plus, if defection from the party counts against it, defections into it should compensate for defections from it. There are at least 25 federal legislators (Senate and House of Representatives) who have defected to the ADC in the current realignment cycle. Some people say the figure is higher than that.

To deregister a party on a ground contradicted by official election records creates the strong impression that the judiciary is being used to do what political actors fear voters may not do.

The danger is larger than the ADC. If courts can erase parties from the ballot on claims that are refuted by INEC’s records, then elections cease to be contests among citizens and become permissions granted by judges.

That is a direct threat to party pluralism, voter choice and what remains of public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy.

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