The presidential candidate for the Zenith Labour Party, Dan Nwanyanwu, has criticised the court ruling on the deregistration of political parties, describing it as a travesty of justice.
He said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, after a Federal High Court’s decision to deregister the African Democratic Congress, (ADC), Accord, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party, (APP) and Zenith Labour Party, (ZLP).
“What happened today is a travesty of justice. What happened today can never be accommodated in the legal practice,” he said.
He argued that the judge proceeded with the matter despite a stay of proceedings issued by the Court of Appeal, adding that proper judicial hierarchy was disregarded.
“The proceedings in this court have been stayed by the Court of Appeal. This particular judge, Peter Lifu, wanted to give judgment on the 5th of this month, and when he saw the stay, he couldn’t deliver the judgment. We anchored that day. Just this morning around 8:00 or 9:00, he sent hearing notices to all the parties to be in court, and they gave their judgment. So, you ask yourself, is there no more respect to the hierarchy of courts?”, he quizzed.
According to him, the court was fully aware of the pending appeal and still went ahead to issue hearing notices and deliver judgment, a development he described as irresponsible and capable of exposing deeper concerns within the Federal High Court.
“In fact, his attention was drawn to the appeal. His attention was drawn to the proceedings in the Court of Appeal. He chose to ignore it. That is irresponsible, with the greatest respect. It is something that will now expose all that has been going on within the judiciary, particularly in the Federal High Court,” he said.
Speaking further, Nwanyanwu maintained that the court ignored key documentary evidence and proceeded as though a predetermined outcome had already been reached. He insisted that the decision overlooked both constitutional provisions and the electoral commission’s own filings, arguing that due process was not properly followed in arriving at the judgment.
“INEC has powers to register and de-register political parties, and 225 has given you conditions. One of the conditions you may have to de-register political parties under 225 talks about winning in an election and other elections. Under 225, all that a political party is expected to win in order to pass this threshold is just one councilor.
“Which is one ward. Just one councilor. In the case of our party, we won 15 local governments. We won 176 councilors in Abia, Nasarawa, and Rivers, even before they took that of Rivers. So, we have passed the threshold, and we deposited all the certificates of returns before Lifu.
“In his own wisdom, he didn’t look at them because he was working on a script. I dare say he worked on a script because if he had seen those certificates of returns, it would be different,” he argued.
Nwanyanwu added that the matter is already before the Court of Appeal, where a motion challenging the earlier stay of execution is expected to be heard. According to him, the timing of the judgment raised concerns, as he suggested that the lower court proceeded despite ongoing appellate proceedings.
“The plaintiff went to the Court of Appeal to persuade the Court of Appeal to set aside his stay of execution on the case before the lower court. That matter is coming up tomorrow. So, he decided to give his judgment today. It’s going to be interesting.”
Favour Odima
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