No de-registered parties in Nigeria, Balarabe Musa says

Former Governor of Kaduna State and chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has declared that there is nothing like de-registered political parties in Nigeria.

Musa who led a delegation of the members of the Third Alternative Alliance, which he described as an amalgam of political parties in Nigeria excluding the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Media Trust office yesterday, said he was reacting to a statement by the acting director, legal service of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Barrister Ibrahim Bawa, on the parties

de-registered by INEC.
Bawa has stated in a recent interview that when there is judgment against a party and the party appeals and challenges a judgment, the judgment does  not automatically becomes enforceable adding that INEC has challenged the judgment over the deregistration of the Fresh Democratic Party.
Musa in his reaction, said the statement by the INEC legal director is not true as he said INEC has not filed any appeal against that judgment and that even it appeals, it is compelled to abide by the judgment pending the determination of its appeal.
“Now, what we are saying is that the INEC is not telling the truth, because the director said, when there is a judgment against a party and the party now appeals and challenges that judgment, the judgment does not automatically become enforceable which is a lie, because the judgment of any court, particularly a court of records like the High Court is binding, unless there is an appeal.
“Even if there is an appeal, unless the court of appeal has given judgment on that matter, INEC has not appealed, they only gave a notice of appeal, they have not appealed this one. Secondly, even if they appealed, they had to abide, unless they have authority from the courts. They have not got. In reality they did not appeal and yet they said this .Now, we as political parties are concerned, because some of us have been de-registered, which means that if we go to court and the court rules in our favour, INEC will not implement the decision of the court. This is very fundamental for us and there is also lack of not only respect but failure to abide by the court judgment,” he stated.
Musa said as far as they are concerned, there are 66 parties in Nigeria and not the 26 recognized by INEC as duly registered. He said the atmosphere is wide enough for all parties to operate and the INEC should not insists on deregistering any party.
Musa was accompanied by the national chairmen of three other parties; SEN Hamza Yusuf of the People’s Salvation Party (PSP) Engr. Segun Ola Oyedeji of the United National Party for Development and Dr. Damian Ogbonna of the Peoples Progressives Party (PPP).
Ogbonna who is the coordinator of the Third Force said  as far as they are concerned, INEC has not appealed the judgment and can therefore not claim to do so.
“Specifically this judgment was passed in June last year.  Now, in August, INEC wrote notice of appeal since last year. Since that time until now, INEC has not even gone back to the High court for the records of proceedings which is the necessary step to a substance of appeal. INEC has not done anything since August of last year, so from all likelihood INEC has abandoned that appeal. But in the public and the media, they continue to say they have an appeal, when they don’t have any,” he stated.