Supreme Court upholds deregistration of 22 political parties

The Supreme Court has upheld the de-registration of 22 political parties carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The political parties were among the 74 scrapped by INEC in February 2020 following their failure to win the number of constituents prescribed by law in the last general elections, which action was set aside by the Court of Appeal in Abuja in August 2020.

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In a judgment delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko on Friday, the apex court said the appellate court had, on its own, raised the issue of lack of fair hearing of the 22 political parties before their scrapping, without hearing from the other parties.

The apex court then set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal and declared INEC’s appeal as meritorious.

Justice Eko said the action of the Court of Appeal in proceeding to give judgment in such a situation violates the pillar of the same fair hearing and as such, its findings and conclusion cannot stand.

“It is not the basic function of any court to raise a fundamental issue suo motu (on its own) and come to the conclusion without being addressed by parties in the matter. Such action runs foul of the pillar of the fair hearing itself,” Justice Eko held.