The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the deregistration of 74 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
INEC in February last year had deregistered the underperforming political parties in the country, but the action of the commission was challenged by some of the political parties.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision by a five-man panel of Justices dismissed as lacking in merit, an appeal made by the National Unity Party, NUP, challenging INEC’s powers to deregister the parties.
The panel of judges, delivering the judgment virtually, and led by Justice Mary Odili, said there was no reason for it to set aside the earlier decisions of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which upheld INEC’s action on the affected political parties.
INEC deregistered the 74 political parties, including NUP, in February 2020, for their inability to win any seat at either Federal, State, or Local Government level, during the 2019 general elections.
Dissatisfied with the action, the NUP tried by lost the be relisted as a political party by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
The party had contended that the action by the INEC amounted to an infringement on its fundamental rights.
