A fresh twist has emerged in the legal dispute over the status of the African Democratic Congress as the Independent National Electoral Commission has opposed efforts seeking the party’s deregistration. Court documents show that INEC rejected the application in its filing, insisting that it failed to meet constitutional and legal requirements for deregistering a political party. The commission argued that none of the constitutionally recognised grounds for deregistration, such as failure to meet electoral performance thresholds or breach of registration requirements, had been established against the ADC. Clarifying its regulatory boundaries, the commission stated in its submission, “The power to deregister political parties is neither discretionary nor subject to political pressure, but strictly governed by extant laws and constitutional provisions.”
Legal analysts say INEC’s position significantly weakens the case and could lead to its collapse, given the commission’s central role as the regulator of political parties in Nigeria. The filing has been interpreted in political and legal circles as an institutional pushback against what some describe as attempts to use the judiciary for partisan purposes. Reacting to the development, Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, described the alleged attempt to deregister the ADC as politically motivated. “What we are witnessing is the unravelling of a poorly scripted political ambush designed to cripple opposition voices,” Shaibu said.
He added that the electoral umpire's intervention strongly validates the widespread concerns surrounding the case. “The fact that INEC itself has come forward to puncture the legal vacuum of this application speaks volumes. It confirms what Nigerians already suspect, that this was never about law, but about intimidation,” he stated. Shaibu further warned against ongoing efforts to weaken political competition in the country, noting that such actions threaten the nation's stability. “No democracy survives where the ruling party seeks to eliminate competition through the back door. Nigeria is bigger than any administration, and its democratic space cannot be shrunk to accommodate political insecurity,” he concluded. The matter remains before the court, with no official reactions received from the ADC as of the time of filing this report.
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