- Safiu Kehinde
The 2027 African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has hailed the Court of Appeal’s ruling against the Abuja Federal High Court’s order for the deregistration of the party alongside four others.
NPO Reported that the Court Appeal had yesterday ordered a stay of execution on the judgement of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice Peter Lifu against the ADC, Accord Party, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Action People’s Party (APP), and Action Alliance (AA).
Recall that Justice Lifu had on Monday ordered the Independent National Electoral (INEC) to deregister the five political parties over failure to meet the constitutional threshold stipulated under Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution.
The judgement would have however be faulted by the Court of Appeal in its ruling on Tuesday.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Abbah Mohammed berated Justice Peter Lifu for proceeding to hear the matter and issuing the order.
The panel ordered the trial court to halt proceedings in the matter until the case before the appellate court was heard and determined.
Reacting in a statement issued on his official X handle on Tuesday evening, Atiku welcomed the appellate court’s decision while acknowledging INEC’s initiation of the application for the stay.
The former Vice President described the ruling as the judiciary itself now being under trial.