Ugochinyere Criticizes Court Ruling on Political Parties

Ikenga Ugochinyere, representing the Action Peoples Party (APP), criticized a Federal High Court ruling that ordered the deregistration of five political parties, including the APP, African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP). Ugochinyere described the decision as an invitation to anarchy and a serious threat to Nigeria's democratic process during a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

He argued that democracy cannot thrive in exclusion and warned against attempts to eliminate political parties through judicial pronouncements. Ugochinyere stated that the judgment had already been overtaken by decisions from superior courts, citing that the Supreme Court established that political parties cannot be deregistered if they comply with electoral requirements.

He noted that the ADC had won two House of Representatives seats in Kogi State during the 2023 general elections, while the APP secured local government chairmanship seats in Jigawa State and seats in the Imo State House of Assembly. Ugochinyere called for an open democratic process and urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to intervene in defense of judicial integrity.