Appeal court affirms INEC’s deregisteration of political parties

 The court of appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday affirmed the power of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister political parties. 

In his ruling, Mohammed Baba Idris, the judge, upheld an earlier decision by the federal high court in Abuja which held that INEC was right to deregister National Unity Party (NUP), one of the 74 parties deregistered by INEC

With the ruling, all pending appeals by other deregistered parties have become an academic exercise.

In May, a federal high court in Abuja affirmed the power of INEC to deregister the NUP along with other political parties which failed to comply with the provisions of the law particularly section 225 A of the 1999 constitution as amended.

Some of the parties include the Democratic Peoples Congress (DPC), Liberation Movement (LM), Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD), Nigeria Community Movement Party (NCMP) and United Peoples Congress (UPC)

Other are Hope Democratic Party (HDP)  Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and Reform and Advancement Party (RAP).