Court ruling on de-registration of political parties misleading, says IPAC Legal Adviser

The legal adviser to the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), Nabai Inemugha, Esq., has reacted to the news of a federal high court affirming the powers of INEC to deregister political parties which circulated the social media two days ago as misleading.

In a statement Sent to NAIJA LIVE TV on 29 May 2020 in Yenagoa, Nabai Inemugha, Esq. alleged that the perpetrators of the falsehood paid different online media houses to trend the story to mislead the public and an attempt to influence the decision of the court in another matter filed by 31 political parties against INEC. “Yesterday, the entire media space was awash with a misleading news that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has affirmed the decision of INEC to deregister political parties. Kindly note that the said news is misleading and only true as to the extent that a decision was given in a matter filed by a single party.

“There is a pending matter filed by a good number of political parties in the same Abuja Federal High Court wherein an injunction has been given against INEC stopping INEC from going on with deregistration of political parties. The matter is still subsisting and entirely different from the one which judgement was given, not even yesterday, but last week.

“The perpetrators of this falsehood merely resurrected albeit maliciously, a matter which judgement was given last week. They paid different online media houses to trend a story in order to mislead the public and attempt to influence the other matter in court.

“In conclusion, nobody is saying that INEC lacks powers to deregister political parties. The cogent and valid argument is that the powers must be exercised judicially and judiciously. Therefore, the entire public is hereby informed to discountenance the news of affirmation of the deregistration of the entire 74 political parties. Cases are deciced by the courts based on facts before it. The court is yet to decide the fate of the illegally and purportedly deregistered political parties. We insist that INEC acted illegally and we are very much optimistic that the courts will come to our aid,” he said.

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