CAD Drags INEC to Court Over Alleged Illegal Retention of Deregistered APP

Civic Action for Democracy (CAD) on Tuesday escalated its confrontation with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), filing a suit at the Federal High Court in Owerri seeking an order compelling the electoral body to remove the Action Peoples Party (APP) from its official register of political parties.

The suit, marked FHC/CS/03/2026, challenges what CAD described as INEC’s continued and unlawful recognition of APP despite the party’s deregistration on February 6, 2020, during INEC’s nationwide political party cleanup exercise.

Addressing journalists shortly after the filing, Executive Director of CAD, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, said the action was aimed at enforcing constitutional compliance and preventing what he termed a “systemic subversion of Nigeria’s electoral framework.”

According to Ngoforo, APP ceased to exist in law following its deregistration and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment of March 2022, which upheld INEC’s powers to deregister political parties that failed to meet constitutional thresholds.

He dismissed INEC’s long-standing claim that a court order restrained the deregistration of APP, insisting that no such order exists.

“For nearly six years, INEC has been unable to produce a single document to support this claim — no suit number, no ruling, no injunction. The continued listing of APP is not an error; it is an institutional failure with grave constitutional implications,” Ngoforo said.

CAD is seeking multiple reliefs, including orders of mandamus compelling INEC to immediately delist APP, as well as injunctions restraining the party from participating in any electoral process.

The organisation also disclosed that it has filed a motion for interlocutory injunction to bar APP from fielding candidates or being recognised by INEC pending the determination of the substantive suit.

Ngoforo warned that allowing a deregistered party to participate in the 2027 general elections could expose the entire electoral process to post-election litigation and constitutional instability.