….Court to decide on April 17
The forum of former legislators has applied for an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja to amend its Originating Summons in a suit seeking to compel the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Accord Party, Zenith Labour Party, (ZLP) and Action Alliance (AA) on the alleged breach of Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The former lawmakers on Tuesday, sought the order to amend their Originating Summons so as to legally accommodate other political parties found to be in breach of the provisions of the law alongside the ADC.
In their motion to the effect, argued by their counsel, Yakubu Abdullahi Ruba, SAN, the lawmakers insisted that the erring political parties needed to be formally made parties to their suit for the judgement in the suit to be enforced against them.
Specifically, the ex lawmakers urged the court to invoke order 7 Rule 6 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure to grant their request in the interest of justice.
The motion was however vehemently opposed by the ADC, which told the court that the application by the former lawmakers was incompetent, invalid and liable to dismissal.
ADC, through his counsel, Shuaibu Eneojo Aruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria drew the attention of the court to the initial Originating Summons filed on December 8, 2025 in the name, National Forum of former Legislators while the second Originating Summons filed on January 12, 2026 and sought to be adopted bored a separate name of “Incorporated Trustees of National Forum of former Legislators”.
The senior lawyer argued that there was a difference between the two bodies and that the law requires that parties in a suit must be consistent in their claims adding that, “National Forum of former Legislators” was not consistent with the “Incorporated Trustees of National Forum of former Legislators”.
Aruwa, SAN argued that the application by the former legislators was a strange one and ran foul of Section 122 of the Evidence Act and pleaded with Justice Peter Lifu to take judicial notice of the record of the court which indicated that the initial Originating Summons was instituted by the National Forum of former Legislators.
According to him, the persons who filed the first Originating Summons of December 8, 2025 are quite different from those who filed the second one of January 12, 2026 which they sought to be amended and urged the court to hold that the second Originating Summons sought to be amended was invalid.
Besides, he said that the plaintiff breached the rule of court by unilaterally joining other parties as defendants in the second Originating Summons without the required order of court.
Aruwa stated that Order 9 Rule 15 of the Federal High Court on amendment of Originating Summons was grossly violated because no order of court was sought and obtained before the plaintiff joined other parties as defendants and therefore urged the court to dismiss the application with substantial cost.
The Accord Party represented by Musibau Adetunbi, SAN also faulted the bid by the former lawmakers to amend the initial Originating Summons on the ground that it breached the provisions of the law.
The ground of objection of the Accord Party was predicated on the differences in the name of the plaintiff adding that, the defect was so incurable that the application seeking amendment has become liable to dismissal and must be dismissed.
Justice Lifu, after taking arguments for and against the plaintiff’s motion for amendment fixed April 17 to deliver ruling on whether to allow the sought amendment or refuse it.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/25, was instituted by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the affected political parties.
The initial originating summons had only the ADC as the political party targeted for deregistration but was subsequently amended to include the four others whose continued existence were said to have constituted a breach of the Constitution.
The plaintiff had contended that INEC is constitutionally bound to deregister parties that fail to meet minimum electoral performance thresholds, including securing at least 25 per cent of votes cast in one state in a Presidential election or winning seats at any level of government.
The plaintiff is seeking declaratory orders compelling INEC to enforce constitutional thresholds, as well as mandatory and perpetual injunctions restraining the commission from recognising or giving effect to the political activities of the affected parties pending full compliance.
The forum argued that allowing such parties to participate in the 2027 general elections would clog ballot papers, waste public resources and undermine electoral integrity.