Appeal Court fines lawyer N1 million for frivolous party deregistration case

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Friday, fined Mr. David Atita, a lawyer of the expelled political party, Liberation Movement, N1 million for filing an appeal which it said was frivolous and a waste of time.

The party, through Mr. Atita, challenged the 24th July 2020 decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging its de-registration by Mr. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to fulfill the legal requirements to win the 2019 elections, as stated in Section 225(a) of the Nigerian Constitution.

The party asked the Court of Appeal to determine whether INEC has the power to remove it from the register and whether the court erred in dismissing its case.

However, in a unanimous ruling on Friday, the Court of Appeal said that the appeal was frivolous, saying that the Supreme Court had resolved similar issues in 2021 in the case of National Unity Party v. INEC.

Okon Abang, who delivered the lead judgment, criticized the trial judge for what he termed as a “hard and dry approach”, saying Atita ignored the advice of INEC’s lawyer to withdraw the appeal, despite clear protests by the Supreme Court.

“The appeal, which was filed in November last year, wasted the time of the trial,” Abang said.

“The petitioner failed to provide any evidence to support his claim that he met the requirements to remain a registered political party.”

He also said that the Court of Appeals does not have the power to reinterpret the “clear and unambiguous” provisions of Section 225(a) of the 1999 Constitution, which sets out the minimum requirements for political parties to register.

Mr. Abang commended the way the Federal Court handled the case, confirming that its interpretation of the Constitution was correct and the petitioner would not be harmed.

He dismissed the appeal and ordered Atita to pay the sum of 1 million to INEC as a settlement of the case without cause.

A small court chaired by Anwuli Chikere (now retired) has already ruled that the Liberation Movement party has valid reasons because the party did not win any of the elections that are specified in the constitution.

With this decision, the appeal court reaffirmed INEC’s powers to remove political parties that fail to meet the requirements of the constitution.

The Supreme Court has set a precedent to demonstrate the power of INEC to remove political parties in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.

On May 7, 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the dissolution of the National Unity Party (NUP) by INEC, confirming the earlier decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja on the matter.

Both the NUP and the Liberation Movement were part of 74 parties have been deregistered and INEC in February 2020.

He was deregistered under section 225(a) of the Nigerian constitution, which empowers INEC to deregister any political party.

The principle in the constitution of this country refers to the success of the by-election that the party must have in order not to be registered as a political party.

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It states that INEC will have the power to dissolve political parties on the following grounds:

(b) not winning at least twenty-five per cent of the votes cast in—
(i) One State of the Federation in the election of the President, or
(ii) One State Government for the election of the President.

(c) failure to succeed,
(i) one ward for the election of the Chairman,
(ii) one seat in the election of the National or State House of Assembly, or
(iii) one seat in the Council election.