The Nigerian government has initiated legal action against the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties in the country regarding the legality and constitutionality of their status as political parties.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026 and filed at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, is seeking to deregister the party.
The Attorney General asserted that the five parties have persistently breached constitutional provisions and undermined Nigeria’s electoral integrity, hence the court must direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the political parties.
In court filings, which also list the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators as the plaintiff, the Attorney General argued that unless the court steps in, INEC would “continue to act in breach of its constitutional duty” by retaining parties that did not meet the minimum requirements prescribed by law.
The filing stressed that the right to associate as a political party is not absolute and must be exercised within the bounds of the Constitution. It further argued that it is in the interest of justice for the court to grant the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.
The defendants include INEC as the first defendant and the Attorney General of the Federation as the second defendant, alongside five political parties: African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Accord (A), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
At the core of the issue in the case is whether INEC has a constitutional obligation to remove parties that fail to meet electoral performance thresholds set out in Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and reinforced by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s own regulations.
The plaintiffs argue that the affected parties have persistently failed to satisfy the constitutional benchmarks required to retain their registration. These include winning at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or securing at least one elective seat at the national, state or local government level.
