Court Releases Certified True Copy of Judgment Setting Aside NDC Registration

Court Releases Certified True Copy of Judgment Setting Aside NDC Registration

The Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Federal High Court ruling setting aside the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has emerged, providing detailed reasons for the court’s decision to nullify its earlier judgment that compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the party.

The ruling, delivered by Justice Isa H. Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja Judicial Division, held that the court’s December 10, 2025 judgment was constitutionally defective because it was made without hearing the Peace Movement Party (PMP), whose legal interests were directly affected by the proceedings.

According to the Certified True Copy obtained by Radarr News, the court found that the PMP had submitted the disputed two-finger victory logo to INEC before the NDC and therefore ought to have been joined as a necessary party in the original suit.

The court ruled that denying the PMP an opportunity to be heard amounted to a breach of its constitutional right to fair hearing as guaranteed under Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Dashen stressed that the application before the court was not an attempt to review the merits of the earlier judgment but to determine whether the proceedings that produced it were fundamentally flawed.

“The failure to join and hear the Applicant before making orders whose implementation was capable of affecting those interests occasioned a denial of fair hearing and rendered the proceedings constitutionally defective,” the judge held.

The court further held that once a breach of the principle of fair hearing is established, the resulting judgment becomes a nullity irrespective of the correctness of the decision reached.

Consequently, the court granted the application filed by the Peace Movement Party, set aside the December 10, 2025 judgment, and ordered that the suit be returned to the stage it occupied before the earlier judgment was delivered.

“The application of the Party Affected/Applicant succeeds and is hereby granted. The judgment delivered by this Court on December 10, 2025, is hereby set aside,” the ruling stated.

The decision followed an application by Barrister Emmanuel Uzowuru, the Protem National Legal Adviser of the Peace Movement Party, who argued that the party’s prior claim to the logo used in the NDC’s registration process was not disclosed to the court during the original proceedings.

The court also noted that affidavit evidence filed by INEC acknowledged that both the PMP and the NDC submitted the same logo, with the PMP making its submission first.

The ruling means the substantive case over the NDC’s registration will now resume before the Federal High Court with all necessary parties expected to participate in the proceedings.