‘I’ve never seen in 25 years’ – Adetunmbi faults court handling of party deregistration case

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and lead counsel to the Accord Party, Musibau Adetunmbi, has described as unprecedented what he called a conflict between orders issued by a higher court and a lower court in the ongoing legal battle over the alleged deregistration of some political parties.

Adetunmbi made the remarks on Tuesday during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun State, while reacting to the recent judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which has sparked fresh legal debates and an ongoing appeal process.

According to the senior lawyer, the situation represents a troubling development within the judicial process.

“Throughout my over 25-year career, I’ve never seen such a situation where the higher court will give an order and the lower court will disobey it,” he said.

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had on Monday directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) from the register of political parties, citing their failure to secure at least 25 per cent of votes in previous elections.

The court further barred the affected political parties from participating in future elections, including the 2027 general elections.

The judgment followed a suit instituted by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators, which argued that the affected parties no longer met the constitutional requirements necessary to remain registered.

However, Adetunmbi insisted that the matter remains before the Court of Appeal and cautioned against extensive public discussions while judicial proceedings are still ongoing.

“I would like to remind you and all our listeners that this matter is still at the Court of Appeal. It’s coming up at 2 p.m. today. So there is a limit to what we can discuss,” he said.

The SAN clarified that the Federal High Court’s ruling did not expressly prohibit the political parties from carrying out political activities but rather instructed INEC to commence the process of deregistering them.

“His lordship did not order those parties to stop campaigns. His lordship ordered INEC to commence deregistration of those political parties and equally directed INEC not to receive any communication from them aside from making certain declarations that they did not meet registration requirements,” he explained.

Adetunmbi further contended that an earlier order from the Court of Appeal had directed that judgment in the matter should not be delivered until the appeal process had been concluded.

“We have an express order before his lordship. The Court of Appeal had earlier ordered that his lordship should not deliver that judgment,” he stated.

He added that in more than two decades of legal practice, he had never witnessed a situation where procedural directives from a superior court and a lower court appeared to be in conflict.

Despite the controversy, the legal practitioner maintained that the Accord Party would continue to seek redress through lawful means.

“On the part of Accord, we are already at the Court of Appeal. We will see the matter to the end within the ambit of the law,” he said.

He declined to speculate on the reasons behind the court’s decision, insisting that only the judiciary could explain the rationale behind its actions.

Meanwhile, the court ruling has cast fresh uncertainty over the political future of . The governor, who recently defected to the Accord Party to anchor his campaign for the August 15, 2026 governorship election in Osun State, could face a major setback if the deregistration order is upheld.

With the deadline for candidate nominations already closed under existing electoral guidelines, the governor may be left without an alternative political platform to contest the election should the ruling eventually stand.