Justice Lifu's reckless judgment on party deregistration is judicial rascality that must be punished

So Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, went ahead and ordered INEC to deregister five political parties — ADC, AA, APP, Accord Party, and ZLP — despite being served a notice of appeal and reminded by counsel that the Court of Appeal had already issued an order on May 22 that should have stopped him. This is not a mistake. This is deliberate judicial rascality, as the Court of Appeal itself called it when they granted a stay of execution. The higher court said, and I quote: "Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court. The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of courts and the provisions of the Constitution."

Let us be clear about what is at stake here. The plaintiff in this matter is the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL). A group of former lawmakers with questionable locus standi trying to shrink our political space ahead of the 2027 elections. The timing is suspicious — barely a week after these parties concluded their primaries, and just before the Ekiti governorship contest and the Osun election where Governor Ademola Adeleke is the Accord Party candidate. And let us not forget that ADC's presidential candidate is Atiku Abubakar. The masterminds behind this judgment know exactly what they are doing.

This is not the first time we have seen this anti-democratic tendency. The late Gani Fawehinmi fought INEC all the way to the Supreme Court over similar restrictive guidelines and won. Now we have Section 225(A) of the 1999 Constitution being weaponized by meddlesome interlopers. The Court of Appeal has done its job by staying the judgment, but that is not enough. Justice Lifu's misconduct must be referred to the National Judicial Council for punitive action. If this goes unpunished, we are telling every judge that they can violate court orders and constitutional provisions with impunity. Am I the only one that thinks the NJC has been too lenient on errant judges in this country?