By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
To calm tension and fear among opposition supporters arising from Federal High Court threat to deregister some political parties ahead of 2027 election,the Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a stay of execution of a Federal High Court judgment that directed the deregistration of five political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), describing the lower court\u2019s action as a grave violation of judicial hierarchy.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded ruling, the appellate court suspended the enforcement of the judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, which had ordered the deregistration of the ADC, Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).<\/p>\n
The appellate panel held that Justice Lifu proceeded to hear and determine the matter despite an existing order of the Court of Appeal and while issues relating to the case were still pending before it.<\/p>\n
According to the justices, the trial judge’s conduct amounted to a direct affront to the authority of the appellate court and undermined the constitutional hierarchy of courts.<\/p>\n
The court described the development as \u201cthe highest form of judicial impertinence,\u201d noting that the Supreme Court had previously condemned similar conduct and characterized it as judicial rascality.<\/p>\n
The appellate court further stated that courts must safeguard the integrity of the judicial system and ensure strict adherence to the principle that lower courts are bound by the orders and decisions of superior courts.<\/p>\n
It stressed that the Court of Appeal possesses supervisory authority over lower courts and cannot allow its orders to be disregarded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of courts and the provisions of the 1999 Constitution,\u201d the appellate court held.<\/p>\n
The panel added that it was duty-bound to invoke its powers to protect the authority of the judiciary and ensure compliance with its directives.<\/p>\n
Consequently, it granted the application seeking a stay of execution and ordered that the enforcement of Justice Lifu\u2019s judgment be suspended pending the determination of the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe application for stay of execution is hereby granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed,\u201d the court ruled.<\/p>\n
Justice Lifu had earlier directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the five political parties on the grounds that they failed to satisfy constitutional requirements necessary for their continued existence and participation in Nigeria\u2019s electoral process.<\/p>\n
The ruling, if implemented, would have removed the ADC, APP, AA, AP and ZLP from the list of recognised political parties eligible to participate in future elections.<\/p>\n
However, with the Court of Appeal’s latest intervention, the status of the affected parties remains preserved pending the final resolution of the legal dispute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent To calm tension and fear among opposition supporters arising from Federal High Court threat to deregister some political parties ahead of 2027 election,the Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a stay of execution of a Federal High Court judgment that directed the deregistration of five political parties, including the African Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14739,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14738\/revisions\/14739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}