The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has declared the Liberation People’s Party (LPP) a duly registered political party, ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue it a certificate of registration within 30 days.
The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by a three-member panel of the appellate court comprising Justices Banjoko, Abang and Oyewunmi, who unanimously ruled in favour of the party and set aside an earlier decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice B.F.M. Nyako.
The appellate court held that the LPP was deemed registered by operation of law in December 2025, 60 days after submitting its application to INEC, in line with the provisions of Section 75(4) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The court also awarded N5 million damages against INEC and ordered the electoral body to pay an additional N500,000 as costs.
The legal battle stemmed from the party’s unsuccessful attempt to secure registration after it was among 14 associations prequalified by INEC from a total of 171 political associations seeking registration in 2025.
According to details presented before the court, the LPP paid the prescribed administrative fee of N2 million and was subsequently issued an access code with a 30-day validity period to upload supporting documents through INEC’s online registration portal.
However, the party alleged that before the expiration of the 30-day period, access to the portal was blocked, preventing it from completing the registration process.
The association said it made several representations to the electoral commission requesting that access be restored to enable the upload of the required documents, but the efforts yielded no result.
Following the failed attempts, the party approached the Federal High Court in Abuja in January 2026 seeking redress.
Justice Nyako, however, declined to grant the reliefs sought by the association, holding that its application had been submitted manually.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the LPP proceeded to the Court of Appeal, which on Tuesday overturned the lower court’s judgment and declared that the party had fulfilled the legal requirements for registration.
The judgment is expected to add another political party to Nigeria’s electoral landscape as preparations gradually gather momentum ahead of future elections.
The ruling also underscores the judiciary’s role in interpreting provisions of the Electoral Act relating to the registration and recognition of political parties in the country.
