Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected the bid by a former senator in Bayelsa State, Senator Clever Marcus Ikisikpo, to join a suit seeking to bar the African Democratic Congress (ADC) from participating in the 2027 general elections.
Senator Ikisikpo, who recently represented Bayelsa East Senatorial District in the Senate, on Tuesday in Abuja approached the Federal High Court with a motion on notice, requesting to be made a co-plaintiff in the legal battle to stop the ADC from participating in next year’s poll.
Through his lawyer, Mr. Kalu Kalu Agu, the former senator filed the motion on notice for joinder to persuade the judge to allow him to join those who instituted the case against the opposition party.
Trouble, however, erupted when the former legislators against the ADC stood their ground in rejecting Ikisikpo’s proposal to team up with them in the suit.
Through their lead counsel, Mr. Yakubu Abdullahi Ruba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the former legislators who instituted the suit seeking an order of court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC opposed Ikisikpo’s application on the grounds that he was not a member of their association.
They also maintained that his attempt to join the suit was suspicious and unnecessary.
In the proceedings that followed, Justice Lifu ordered Ikisikpo’s lawyer to provide evidence of his client’s membership of the plaintiff association, which he could not do.
The claim that Ikisikpo was a former legislator was rejected by the judge on the grounds that being a former lawmaker was not an automatic qualification for membership of the plaintiff association.
At that point, Kalu Agu indicated that he had taken the hint from the judge and promptly withdrew the application for joinder.
Justice Peter Lifu subsequently struck out the application.
Other political parties sought to be deregistered alongside the African Democratic Congress (ADC) include the Accord Party, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and Action Alliance (AA), over allegations that they breached Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The forum of former legislators in the suit is contending 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 forum is seeking declaratory orders compelling INEC to enforce constitutional thresholds, as well as mandatory and perpetual injunctions restraining the electoral body 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.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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