The Federal High Court in Owerri has dismissed a suit seeking the deregistration of the Action Peoples Party (APP).
The court affirmed the party’s status as a legally registered political party and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to retain it on its register and ballot for the 2027 general election.
The judgment, delivered by Justice Iniekenimi Oweibo on June 2, 2026, came amid a conflicting development in Abuja, where another Federal High Court on Monday ordered INEC to deregister the APP alongside four other political parties.
In the Abuja ruling, Justice Peter Lifu directed INEC to deregister the APP, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party (AP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Action Alliance (AA).
However, in the Owerri case, marked FHC/OW/CS/39/2026, Justice Oweibo dismissed the plaintiff’s claims, Mazi Ngororo Chinazo, that the APP had been lawfully deregistered by INEC during the commission’s February 6, 2020 deregistration exercise.
The suit, filed against INEC, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the APP, sought a declaration that INEC could not continue to recognise the APP as a registered political party after its alleged deregistration under Sections 225 and 225A of the Constitution and Section 94 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Counsel to the plaintiff, I.M.O. George, argued that the APP’s continued recognition by INEC was unlawful because the party had purportedly been removed from the electoral register in 2020.
However, Justice Oweibo held that the plaintiff failed to establish that the APP was among the parties deregistered by INEC.
The court found that the APP had previously challenged attempts to deregister it and obtained an order from the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory restraining INEC from taking any action against the party. The court noted that the order remains valid and subsisting.
According to the judgment, INEC had no legal obligation to remove from its register a political party that had not been lawfully deregistered, adding that any such action would be inconsistent with the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022.
The judge resolved all five issues raised in the suit against the plaintiff, dismissed the case in its entirety and rejected all the reliefs sought.
Justice Oweibo further described the suit as one that ought not to have been filed, noting that the plaintiff was aware from his own investigations that the APP had not been deregistered and was also aware of earlier decisions of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal affirming the party’s status.
He held that the action amounted to a waste of judicial time and the resources of the defendants.
Consequently, the court awarded costs of N10 million against the plaintiff in favour of INEC and another N10 million in favour of the APP.
