LEGAL TWIST: APP caught between conflicting Federal High Court judgments over deregistration
Nigeria’s legal and political landscape has been thrown into confusion following two seeming contradictory Federal High Court judgments regarding the status of the Action Peoples Party (APP) ahead of upcoming electoral cycles.
Just 24 hours after the Federal High Court in Owerri cleared the APP of any previous deregistration stains and heavily fined a challenger, a separate Federal High Court sitting in Abuja delivered a hammer blow, ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately ax the party alongside four others.
The conflicting rulings have sparked intense debate among legal experts and political stakeholders, leaving the APP caught in a complex web of judicial interpretation.
The Owerri Shield: A ₦20m victory
The first layer of the legal drama unfolded in Owerri, where Justice I.N. Oweibo dismissed a suit marked FHC/OW/CS/39/2026 filed by Mazi Franklin Ngoforo.
Ngoforo had sought the deregistration of the APP, claiming it performed dismally in the 2023 elections and was legally dead following INEC’s general deregistration exercise on February 6, 2020. He argued that its participation in local council elections in Rivers and Jigawa states was an illegality.
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However, Justice Oweibo ruled that the plaintiff failed to prove the APP was ever legally deregistered. Crucially, the court acknowledged a subsisting Abuja Federal High Court order (Suit No. FCT/HC/BW/CV/176/2020) that had actively restrained INEC from touching the APP.
Slabbing Ngoforo with a stinging ₦20 million fine for “wasting the court’s time,” Justice Oweibo held that “The 3rd defendant (APP) was at no time deregistered… its participation in electoral activities was in line with the law.”
The Abuja Sword: Justice Lifu orders fresh axe
The APP’s celebration was short-lived. Yesterday, the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, flipped the script in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026.
Brought forward by the National Forum of Former Legislators, the lawsuit accused INEC of failing to enforce Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Under this constitutional provision, a political party must achieve specific performance benchmarks to retain its registration, which include securing at least 25% of the votes in at least one state during a presidential election, and winning at least one elective position at the federal, state, or local government levels.
Justice Lifu upheld the former lawmakers’ arguments, ruling that the APP, alongside the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party (AP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), had failed to meet these thresholds during the 2023 elections and subsequent by-elections.
The Abuja court directed INEC to immediately strip all five parties of their official registration status, effectively freezing their rights to conduct primaries, hold rallies, or field candidates.
Because a Federal High Court cannot overrule another court of equal status, these conflicting verdicts create an operational nightmare for INEC.
While political stakeholders align their strategies, the affected parties are pushing back. The leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC)—whose upcoming presidential ticket features former Vice President Atiku Abubakar—has already condemned the Abuja ruling, calling it “a direct invitation to anarchy” and vowing to launch an immediate appeal.
The APP is expected to follow suit, using its Owerri victory and its older 2020 restraining order as legal ammunition. Legal observers agree that the ultimate fate of the APP and the four other political parties will now rest solely in the hands of the Court of Appeal.
