Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, has described a Federal High Court judgement on the deregistration of five political parties, including Accord Party (A), as an abuse of court process and a violation of a subsisting order of the Court of Appeal.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, the governor said the appellate court had already ordered a stay of proceedings, questioning why the lower court proceeded to deliver judgement on a matter still before it.
According to him, the Court of Appeal, in its proceedings of May 22, 2026, which was presented before the court as Exhibit MAC 2, had made it clear that: “The delivery of the judgement is still part of the proceedings of the Court.”
He maintained that the ruling amounted to a disregard for the appellate court’s directive and urged all parties to respect the rule of law.
Governor Adeleke called on residents of the state to remain calm, assuring that the Court of Appeal would hear the matter on Tuesday.
“It is on record before Honourable Justice Peter Lifu J that in the record of proceedings of the Court of Appeal of 22nd May, 2026 and which was put before his Lordship as Exhibit MAC 2 the Court of Appeal specifically pronounced that ‘The delivery of the judgement is still part of the proceedings of the Court.’,” he stated.
He urged citizens not to be unsettled, insisting that attempts to disenfranchise Osun people would not succeed.
“I call on Osun people to remain calm and be assured that our rights will be affirmed and our party, the Accord will be on the ballot on August 15th.
“We will not only be on the ballot, we will win overwhelmingly the forthcoming governorship election. We should remain calm and forge ahead with mobilisation of our people.
“I also want to assure our people that the flag off of our campaign is holding as scheduled tommorow. They want to distract us. We are going ahead and we are winning this election,” the state governor posited.
He added that legal teams were already taking steps to address the situation.
“Our lawyers are taking all the necessary steps to right the wrong,” the governor posited.
LEADERSHIP reports that Justice Peter Lifu of Federal High Court Abuja had on Monday ordered INEC to deregister the Accord Party and four other political parties for allegedly failing to meet constitutional performance thresholds required for continued operationas political parties.
The judgement followed a suit filed by the National Forum of Former Legislators, which argued that the affected parties had failed to satisfy the electoral benchmarks stipulated under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution and relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
