Ex-legislators explain why they want them deregistered

THE Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed March 24 for hearing in a suit seeking to compel deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Action Alliance (AA) over alleged non-compliance with constitutional requirements.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/25, was instituted by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the affected political parties.
The initial originating summons had only the ADC as the political party targeted for deregistration, but was subsequently amended to include the four others whose continued existence was said to have constituted a breach of the Constitution.
At yesterday’s proceedings, various lawyers announced their appearance for the affected political parties except the AA, which had two legal practitioners from different law firms.
The two lawyers who claimed representation and stood their ground on legitimacy were Ibrahim Yakubu and Bello Lukman.
During the ensuing drama, the presiding judge, Peter Lifu, asked the counsel whether they were together, to which both confirmed they had separate letters of instruction.
He, therefore, directed them to reconcile, warning that the court would “do the needful” if they failed to put their house in order.
In another development, counsel to Accord Party, Mr Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), moved an application praying for an order of the court to file a further counter-affidavit against joining the party in the deregistration battle.
He argued that the request was to accommodate some salient facts omitted in the earlier one.
His motion brought pursuant to Order 26, Rule 1 and Order 66, Rule 8 was predicated on seven grounds.
The move was, however, vehemently opposed by the plaintiff, who insisted that a further counter-affidavit was not necessary because no new fact was introduced in the amended originating summons.

Yakubu Ruba (SAN), who argued for the plaintiff, insisted that the application to file a further counter-affidavit was incompetent and unknown to the law since no new facts were introduced and urged the judge to decline granting the request.

The court thereafter fixed March 24 for ruling on the application and hearing of other motions.
BUT the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL), yesterday, explained why it approached the court to deregister the affected political parties.
Addressing journalists after the court session, Chairman of the NFFL Board of Trustees, Raphael Igbokwe, clarified that the suit was filed in the public interest to ensure strict adherence to constitutional provisions governing political parties.
“NFFL is a public interest group and therefore it filed a public interest suit aimed at expounding electoral jurisprudence,” Igbokwe said.
He maintained that Nigeria’s constitutional democracy is anchored on the rule of law and that all institutions, including INEC, must operate within the bounds of the Constitution.
According to him, the action became necessary following what the forum described as INEC’s failure to consistently apply Section 225A, which empowers the commission to deregister political parties that fail to meet constitutional requirements.
“INEC cannot choose and pick which political party to apply the Constitution to,” Igbokwe stated.