Party Registration:Group Petitions N’Assembly Over Alleged Plan By INEC To Disenfranchise Nigerians

A group, Federation of Political Parties and Associations has petitioned the National Assembly over the alleged plan by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to disenfranchise Nigerian s by denying it registration.

The group in a letter signed by its national chairman, Comrade Mark Adebayo and National Secretary, Dr Anthony Harmattan drew the attention of the National Assembly to the attempt by the INEC and its agents to allegedly short change Nigerians.

The letter read; ” We the members of this noble association being represented by various political parties and Associations do hereby wish to draw your attention to various attempts by INEC and it’s agents to short change Nigerians and subvert the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria with it’s recent bill to the National Assembly that imposes a registration fee of 50million Naira for New political party registration as against section 40 of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999.

“We see this attempt as obnoxious, wicked and an attempt to ridicule the 1999 Constitution that guaranteed free political formations and Associations to all Nigerians. It is important to note that none of the existing political parties were made to go through this eye of the needle. That even PDP and APC , none of them paid a registration fee above 1million Naira, so why give others the poison that were not served on them.

“Secondly we unanimously and without equivocation call on the National Assembly to expunge without much ado the draconian section 225A which was infiltrated and inscribed into our constitution by bad belle politicians. This section has been proven by various courts as anti-democratic. In the case of 22 political parties vs INEC in 2022.

“A five man Appeal court justices noted with grave concern that INEC has no right to deregister political parties by fiat as Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution guarantees their existence and ordered INEC to immediately re-enlist the parties deregistered under Section 225A. But INEC and the powers that be wasted tax payers money to appeal that judgement to the supreme court, where they got judgement that only said that INEC was not given a fair hearing, which we all know the truth. We therefore call on this August body to urge the National Assembly to expunge completely this obnoxious law from the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.”

Below is the full text of the letter

FEDERATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND ASSOCIATIONS

Members Of The Nigerian Senate And National House Of Representatives

Eminent Nigerians

The General public

Dated 10, December 2025

Dear Sirs,

PROPOSAL/PETITION AGAINST ATTEMPTS BY INEC AND ITS AGENTS TO DISENFRANCHISE NIGERIANS FROM FORMATIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN LINE WITH SECTION 40 OF THE 1999 CONSTITUTION. A WAKE UP CALL TO ALL NIGERIANS OF GOOD WILL.

1. We the members of this noble association being represented by various political parties and Associations do hereby wish to draw your attention to various attempts by INEC and it’s agents to short change Nigerians and subvert the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria with it’s recent bill to the National Assembly that imposes a registration fee of 50million Naira for New political party registration as against section 40 of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999. We see this attempt as obnoxious, wicked and an attempt to ridicule the 1999 Constitution that guaranteed free political formations and Associations to all Nigerians. It is important to note that none of the existing political parties were made to go through this eye of the needle. That even PDP and APC , none of them paid a registration fee above 1million Naira, so why give others the poison that were not served on them.

2. Secondly we unanimously and without equivocation call on the National Assembly to expunge without much ado the draconian section 225A which was infiltrated and inscribed into our constitution by bad belle politicians. This section has been proven by various courts as anti-democratic. In the case of 22 political parties vs INEC in 2022. A five man Appeal court justices noted with grave concern that INEC has no right to deregister political parties by fiat as Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution guarantees their existence and ordered INEC to immediately re-enlist the parties deregistered under Section 225A. But INEC and the powers that be wasted tax payers money to appeal that judgement to the supreme court, where they got judgement that only said that INEC was not given a fair hearing, which we all know the truth. We therefore call on this August body to urge the National Assembly to expunge completely this obnoxious law from the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

3. Consequently ,FEPPA wish to state that the new INEC bill, imprisoning parties or their agents and or obligating them to pay 20million Naira for failure to file accurate records is outrageous and draconian and cannot be allowed to see the light of the day.

4. That FEPPA is vehemently against the alleged proposed bill to limit the number of political parties to ten as we believes that multiparty democracy under which our democracy was founded is the basis of the successes of the United states with over 5000 registered parties. That the United Kingdom has over 550 registered political parties, France has 640 registered parties, Denmark with a Population of 6million has over 20 registered Political Parties, South Africa has 1750 registered parties, Togo has 250 registered parties, Benin Republic has 300 registered parties, Indian has 12,000 registered parties, Germany has over 95 registered Parties ,Russia has 122 registered parties etc and that is the secret of their progress as these parties engage in oversight functions of developmental centres for human and capital mobilization to rural and Urban development supporting the govt as partners in progress in a beautiful symbiosis.

5. That on Political Party Registration and Monitoring Commission: INEC should be Unbundled to focus on conducting Elections only, while another Commission is empowered register Political Parties, Monitoring and funding.

6. Cross carpeting: We propose that any elected MP that cross carpets to another party loses his or her sit automatically and should be made sacrosanct in our constitution without any form of ambiguity as in other democracies of the world.

7. Electoral offence commission: INEC should forward all electoral offenses to the electoral offenses commission for trial

Conclusion

By this protest and Proposals, we have made our intention and proposition known to the general public and shall therefore seek legal action in the court of law to expunge thode obnoxious and draconian bill if eventually passed into law.

Comrade Mark Adebayo National Chairman.

Dr Anthony Harmattan National Secretary