The Court of Appeal in Abuja has nullified the judgment of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, which deregistered the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, on June 26, 2026.

Delivering judgment in a split decision of 2 to 1, the three-man panel of the appellate court held that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was right to register the NDC and approve its use of the two-fingers victory sign as its party logo.

Justices Muhammad Danjuma and Muslim Sule Hassan, who delivered the majority judgment, ruled that the Peace Movement Party, an unregistered political association that filed the suit at the trial court, lacked the legal standing, locus standi, to challenge the registration of the NDC.

The majority held that an unregistered association cannot use the Lokoja court to stop the registration of a duly registered party.

However, in a dissenting judgment, Justice Okon Abang held that the trial court was right to have nullified the NDC’s use of the two-finger logo. He argued that the Peace Movement Party had applied earlier to use the same logo.

Justice Abang also described the NDC’s case as statute-barred, allowed the cross-appeal filed by the Peace Movement Party on grounds of denial of fair hearing, and awarded N10 million as costs in favour of the PMP.

With the majority decision, the registration and logo of the NDC remain valid.