Kwara ADC Rejects Court Order for Party Deregistration

The Kwara State chapter of the African Democratic Congress rejected a Federal High Court judgment ordering the deregistration of the party on Monday, June 15, 2026, describing the ruling as politically motivated and a direct assault on Nigeria’s multi-party democratic framework.

A statement issued by the Kwara ADC said the judgment was obtained through a process that the party considered flawed and that it intended to challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal. Officials said the party was consulting its legal team on the fastest route to obtaining a stay of execution pending the appeal, and that the deregistration order would not take immediate effect as long as the matter remained before the courts.

‘The judgment is a politically motivated assault on Nigeria’s multi-party democracy,’ the Kwara ADC statement read, adding that the party had built genuine structures and a legitimate membership base in Kwara State and would not be silenced by a court ruling it considered unjust.

Wider Implications for Opposition Parties

The ADC is currently navigating one of the most turbulent periods in its history, with the resignation of former SGF Babachir Lawal following the presidential primary controversy involving Atiku Abubakar, the Kwara deregistration judgment, and ongoing internal party disputes across multiple states. The combination of legal challenges and internal fractures poses a significant threat to the party’s national ambitions ahead of 2027.

However, party officials at the national level said they were confident that the legal challenges could be managed and that the party’s 2027 presidential campaign around Atiku Abubakar remained on track. National chairman of the ADC called on all members to remain calm and focused, saying the party had faced adversity before and emerged stronger.

Furthermore, the case is one of several pending court actions involving the deregistration or internal disputes of political parties currently before Nigerian courts. INEC’s earlier appeal against court judgments altering its 2027 election timetable showed that electoral and party-related litigation was becoming a significant feature of Nigeria’s pre-election legal landscape. Still, legal experts said courts must be careful not to allow party deregistration cases to be weaponised for political purposes, given the importance of a genuinely competitive multi-party environment for democratic health. Notably, the case underscores how courts are becoming central battlegrounds in Nigeria’s political wars even before the formal 2027 campaign season opens. Consequently, the outcome of the ADC’s appeal could have implications for its capacity to contest the 2027 elections at full strength.

DSS Nabs Arms Courier in Kano

In a separate security development, the Department of State Services announced the arrest of a notorious arms courier in Kano, recovering three AK-47 rifles, four rocket-propelled grenade tubes, and other weapons. The courier was described as a key link in an arms supply chain that had been providing weapons to terrorist and bandit groups operating across the northwest. As a result, the DSS said the seizure had disrupted the operational capacity of armed groups that depend on the Kano corridor for weapons resupply.