STATEMENT FROM THE LABOUR PARTY
Deregistration of ADC, others:
Labour Party worst hit by Justice Peter Lifu’s miscarriage of justice
… Lifu overlooked all known principles in law to favour Otti, Nenadi in his judgement against Labour Party
The leadership of the Labour Party has expressed worry over the degradation of the judicial system by some members of the bench in Nigeria saying that the party is worst hit by alleged miscarriage of justice by Justice Peter Lifu.
The party while condemning the recent judgement handed down by Justice Lifu against the African Democratic Congress, ADC and five other political parties notes that the jurist overlooked all known principles in law to favour Ms Nenadi Usman in his judgement in a matter brought before his court against Julius Abure and others.
In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, the party said that all known principles in law such as the one which holds that the issues of leadership are internal affairs of the party; that no court has the powers to interprete a decision or give effect to the decision of the supreme Court; and that the doctrine of fair hearing must be adhered to, were all relegated, negated and ignored by Justice Lifu while giving judgement.
The Labour Party’s spokesperson said though it is quite unfortunate that Justice Lifu’s illegal and embarrassing conducts have finally come to the head with his recent judgement where he ordered INEC to deregister 5 political parties, he notes that the Labour Party has been crippled and is under an existential threat by the injustice meted to it by Justice Lifu.
He said, “It must be noted that apart from the deregistration of ADC and some other political parties, Justice Peter Lifu has wilfully embarked on actions capable of endangering our democracy through his judicial rascality and his continuous miscarriage of justice. We in Labour Party are worst hit by the judgement of Justice Peter Lifu.”
Elaborating on the Labour Party case, he said, “On the 7th of October, 2025, in suit no. FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2119/2025 filed by Senator Nenadi Usman against INEC which was on the Labour Party’s national convention that was held on the 27th of March, 2024, the case was assigned to Justice J. K. Omotosho. Ordinarily, Justice Omotosho had delivered two judgements, given vent and very legal opinion on the national convention of the party. We were happy that justice will be done by Justice Omotosho. Curiously, after we have joined all the issues and filed all the papers, the matter was discontinued on the 28th of October, 2025.
Another matter was then filed via suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/2262/2025 by the same parties and the same subject matter but this time, the presiding judge of the federal high courts, now assigned the matter to Justice Peter Lifu. This was our first major red flag, we suspected that something was in the offing. In any event, because we have a very good case, we decided to continue with the matter.
The second red flag on Justice Lifu was that when the matter came up for hearing, on the 3rd of November, 2025, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC filed a motion for a joinder, and raised a lot of fundamental issues that apparently negated our positions. It was very imperatives that we needed to respond to all those issues raised by the NLC.
On the basis of these fresh motions, we asked for an adjournment to enable us do those responses. Justice Peter Lifu descended to the arena and insisted that the matter must go on that day. He refused all attempts for us to respond to all those issues raised by the NLC and insisted that the matter must be heard same day. He was acting like a man in hurry to conclude a task. There was no reason for him not to have allowed us to respond to the claims. It was then that we started suspecting that there must be a lot more that we cannot see.
In any event, because we don’t want to be unruly to the court, we decided that the matter should go on . He heard it that day and adjourned for judgment. He eventually did the hatchet job for Governor Alex Otti and Senator Nenadi Usman. We took a lot of things for granted because, we thought that having a good case, there is nothing a reasonable judge could do about that matter.
We had every reason to have protested, petitioned and to have done a lot of things because Alex Otti himself had called for a meeting in Abia where he boasted and assured his people that he will get a judgment. It was all over the Internet and social media how they were celebrating even before the judgment day. It was very clear that they knew what would be the outcome of the judgment.
We want to say that as at now, that judgment of the federal high court negates and it is against all known principles of law. Is it the principles of law that holds that the issues of leadership are internal affairs of the party; nor is it the principles that states that no court has the powers to interprete a decision or give effect to the decision of the supreme Court; or that the doctrine of fair hearing must be adhered to; all these are established principles of law that the Justice Lifu’s judgement was against.
This has no doubt brought his character and behavior to the fore. In any event, our only regret however is that this same judgement delivered by Justice Lifu was also affirmed by the court of Appeal. We believe that the Supreme Court will do justice to the matter and do the right thing, being the final court of redress.”
On the danger of Justice Lifu’s judicial rascality, Ifoh said, “I want to say very clearly that our democracy, party politics, the rule of law, our constitution and the Electoral Act are under serious threat. It is on this basis that I want to call on the courageous judges of the Supreme Court to rise to the occasion and steer our ship of judiciary out of where it is currently headed to, because if the courts continue in this manner, it will be very clear that our democracy is heading towards destruction.”
Sign:
Obiora Ifoh
National Publicity Secretary
Labour Party
23/06/2026
