Appeal Court Upholds NDC Registration, Sets Aside Lokoja Judgment

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set aside a judgment of the Federal High Court in Lokoja that had overturned an earlier order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress.

In a two-to-one majority judgment, the appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacked the power to revisit its own final judgment of December 10, 2025, which had ordered INEC to register the NDC.

The court held that the June 26, 2026 decision of the Lokoja division, which set aside the earlier judgment, amounted to an abuse of judicial power. It maintained that a trial court becomes functus officio after delivering a final judgment and can only revisit it for limited purposes such as correcting clerical errors.

The majority also rejected the objection surrounding the NDC’s use of a logo allegedly belonging to the Peace Movement Party, describing the PMP as an unregistered political association without the legal standing to institute the action.

The two justices held that the PMP was an interested party rather than a necessary party and that its non-joinder in the original suit did not amount to a denial of fair hearing.

However, in a dissenting judgment, Justice Okon Abang upheld the Federal High Court’s decision against the NDC, holding that the party’s original suit challenging INEC’s refusal to register it was filed outside the period prescribed by law.

Justice Abang said the NDC instituted the action 53 days after its cause of action arose, instead of within the 14-day period prescribed by the Electoral Act following receipt of INEC’s refusal letter.

He consequently held that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit that resulted in the December 10, 2025 judgment ordering INEC to register the NDC.

The dissenting justice also questioned the decision to institute the action at the Lokoja Division of the Federal High Court rather than Abuja, describing the move as forum-shopping intended to secure a favourable judgment.

The legal dispute followed a December 2025 judgment by the Federal High Court in Lokoja directing INEC to register the NDC after the commission had refused to do so.

On June 26, 2026, Justice Isah Dashen of the same court subsequently set aside that judgment following an application by the PMP, which argued that the NDC’s logo was similar to one associated with it and that it should have been joined in the original proceedings.

The NDC challenged the decision, arguing that the trial court had become functus officio after delivering its final judgment and lacked jurisdiction to reopen the matter through an interlocutory application.