● RadarrNews reported that the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Friday, set aside its earlier judgement directing INEC to register NDC as a political party.
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has filed an appeal against a court ruling that reversed an earlier order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the NDC as a political party.
RadarrNews reported that the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Friday, set aside its earlier judgement directing INEC to register NDC as a political party.
The ruling followed an application by the Peace Movement Party (PMP), which sought to have the December 2025 judgement set aside because it was not joined in the suit.
The judge, Isah Dashen, upheld the PMP application and ruled that all relevant parties must be heard before any substantive decision can be made in the matter.
The judge then declared that such an omission rendered the entire process null and void, and ruled that the status quo be restored to what it was before the December 2025 judgement, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Appeal filed
In a post on his Facebook page on Monday night, the National Leader of the NDC, Seriake Dickson, said the party is also seeking a stay of execution of the ruling.
Mr Dickson, who is the NDC’s candidate for Bayelsa West District, announced that the court process has been served on the INEC chairman and his team “to do what is right according to law and what is legally sensible.”
“Having filed and served our appeal and the accompanying applications, the ball is now in the court of the judiciary, and we expect the judiciary to do what is right under the law,” he stated.
The national leader also confirmed that, following the appeal, INEC has granted the NDC access to upload the party’s candidates to its portal.
“We have been granted access to the (INEC) portal to upload our qualified candidates.
“My name and that of the presidential candidate (Peter Obi) have been uploaded to the INEC portal, while that of the vice presidential candidate will be done tomorrow (today) upon completion of the deposition. The process is also ongoing for other candidates,” he said.
Detail of the appeal
Mr Dickson did not provide details of the appeal, including the court in which it was filed.
However, RadarrNews learnt from PREMIUM TIMES that the NDC filed the appeal at the Court of Appeal.
It is unclear for now whether the Court of Appeal has set a hearing date for the appeal.
Peter Obi who hopes to lead over 200 million Nigerians but said that anywhere there is crisis, he prefers to be on the run to where there is no crisis, is now faced with an actual crisis that threatens his political career in ways that puts even his most ardent supporter on edge each day now as his supporters go on full “all eyes on the Judiciary” mode as they have obviously shelved campaign to hope NDC even stays alive legitimately to see January 2027 at all.
Whether Peter Obi will run away from NDC now that NDC that he ran to when ADC was faced with a brief judicial crisis, has now entered into a battle of even legitimate existence, is a question that is being whispered around the corridors of politics strategy rooms.
