Supreme Court upholds INEC’S de-registration of 22 political parties

The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja upheld the de-registration of 22 political parties carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The parties were among the 74 scrapped in 2020 by INEC following their dismal performances in the previous elections.

Delivering judgment in an appeal instituted by INEC against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ejembi Eko voided and set aside a judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division which had nullified the de-registration.

Justice Eko held that the Court Appeal on its own (suo motu) raised the issue of lack of fair hearing in favour of the 22 scrapped parties and arrived at a conclusion without hearing from other parties in the matter.

“This appeal by INEC is meritorious and is hereby allowed. The decision of the court below is set aside”.

,,,,The apex court held that the Court of Appeal took out the issue of fair hearing out of the contemplations of the notice of appeal filed by the political parties but refused to do the needful in order to be fair to others in the matter.

Specifically, the Supreme Court said that the Court of Appeal erred in law by raising the issue of fair hearing in favour of the political parties suo motu and declined to give an opportunity to other respondents to address it on the matter in order to arrive at a just conclusion.