*Warns Politicians Against Joining Deregistered Party Facing Certain Delisting
*As Federal High Court Hears APP Deregistration Case, April 16
Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, Executive Director of Civic Action for Democracy and lead plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit seeking the delisting of the Action Peoples Party from INEC’s register, has unleashed a blistering attack on Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere for what he described as “the unthinkable descent into brazen lies and deliberate public deception” following a press conference held on Friday by individuals parading themselves as APP’s State Working Committee members.
Speaking to journalists at his Abuja office on Saturday, Ngoforo condemned the press conference where Ugochinyere’s aides who claimed to be APP officials lied that their party is duly registered with INEC, describing the assertion as a “criminal falsehood designed to hoodwink unsuspecting politicians and members of the public who may not be aware of the overwhelming documentary evidence proving that APP was lawfully deregistered on February 6, 2020.”
Ngoforo reserved particular scorn for the individual parading himself as APP Chairman who claimed during the briefing that “if the party was not duly registered, I would not accept to be Chairman,” calling this statement “either evidence of spectacular ignorance or deliberate complicity in fraud, neither of which is flattering.”
The civil society activist directed his strongest condemnation at a self-proclaimed lawyer who identified himself as APP’s Legal Adviser and who, during Friday’s press conference, described the pending Federal High Court case as “misinformation and falsehood.”
Ngoforo characterized this statement as “a direct attack on the judiciary that crosses a dangerous line from mere political desperation into contempt of court and professional misconduct.”
He continued: “We are not dealing anymore with simple desperation to defend a criminal enterprise. We are now witnessing a brazen attack on the judicial process itself. A lawyer, an officer of the court who should understand the sanctity of judicial proceedings, has publicly dismissed a properly filed lawsuit with comprehensive exhibits, twenty-one specific reliefs, and a hearing scheduled for April 16, 2026, as misinformation and falsehood. This is not legal argument. This is an attempt to undermine public confidence in the judiciary and prejudice potential court outcomes through media propaganda. It is actionable misconduct that should attract the attention of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee.”
Ngoforo provided a detailed chronology of APP’s deregistration to counter what he termed Ugochinyere’s “campaign of lies,” laying out the irrefutable facts that form the foundation of his lawsuit.
“Let me state the facts once again for Ugochinyere and his desperate confederates,” Ngoforo declared. “On February 6, 2020, the Independent National Electoral Commission, pursuant to Sections 225 and 225A of the 1999 Constitution and Section 94 of the Electoral Act then in force, lawfully deregistered seventy-four political parties that failed to meet specified performance criteria in the 2019 general elections. The Action Peoples Party was among those seventy-four deregistered parties. INEC published formal notice of this deregistration. It was gazetted. It became official. That deregistration was subsequently challenged in court by some affected parties, and in March 2022, the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a binding judgment affirming the constitutional validity of INEC’s deregistration exercise. These are not opinions. These are not allegations. These are documented, verifiable, judicial facts that no amount of press conference propaganda can erase.”
Continuing his systematic demolition of APP’s claims, Ngoforo addressed the central fraud that has kept the deregistered party on INEC’s register for nearly six years. “After being lawfully deregistered, APP somehow remained on INEC’s register,” he explained. “When concerned citizens and lawyers, including Barr. Eunice Atuejide in July 2020 and Barr. Ukpai Ukairo in 2024, wrote to INEC requesting details of why a deregistered party was still listed, INEC claimed that APP had obtained a court order restraining the deregistration. But here is the critical point that Ugochinyere and his propagandists desperately want Nigerians to ignore: that court order has never been produced. Not when Barr. Atuejide requested it in 2020. Not when Barr. Ukairo requested it in 2024. Not in response to my comprehensive lawsuit filed in January 2026. Not during the February 26 court hearing when INEC conspicuously failed to send even one lawyer to defend APP. The phantom court order does not exist. It never existed. And INEC’s refusal to defend APP in court is the clearest possible admission that the claim of a restraining order was always a fraudulent fabrication designed to shield corrupt dealings.”
The activist expressed particular concern about Ugochinyere’s continued efforts to recruit unsuspecting politicians into APP despite knowing the party faces certain judicial disqualification. “This now goes beyond Ugochinyere’s personal political survival,” Ngoforo stated with unwavering clarity. “He is deliberately lying to the public to lure political office seekers into a party that will not exist in three weeks when the Federal High Court resumes hearing on April 16. Smart and discerning politicians like Hon. Ambassador Uche Ogbuagu and Rt. Hon. Ugonna Ozuruigbo have seen through the lies and deceit and immediately dumped every association with APP. But Ugochinyere persists. He is bent on sinking innocent people’s political careers, wasting their resources, destroying their reputations, and leading them into a dead end, all to satisfy his ego as someone who can still claim to be the national leader of a political party, even if that party is a deregistered fraud. This is not politics. This is wickedness. This is a man so consumed by his own delusions and desperation that he will sacrifice anyone and everyone around him rather than face the truth.”
Ngoforo called on INEC to issue a public statement clarifying APP’s status and confirming that the electoral commission will not defend the party’s continued listing in court, arguing that INEC’s silence enables Ugochinyere’s propaganda campaign. “INEC’s decision not to appear in court on February 26 to defend APP was commendable and showed institutional integrity,” Ngoforo acknowledged. “But INEC’s continued public silence allows characters like Ugochinyere to tell lies with impunity. When APP officials stand before cameras and claim their party is duly registered, when they point to INEC’s current listing as supposed proof, INEC’s silence becomes complicity in public deception. I am calling on Prof. Joash Amupitan, the INEC Chairman, to issue a public statement before April 16 clarifying that APP was deregistered in 2020, that INEC will not defend APP’s continued listing in court, and that politicians joining or remaining in APP do so at their own risk because the party faces imminent delisting by court order. Such a statement would stop Ugochinyere’s lies in their tracks and prevent innocent politicians from being deceived into joining a doomed enterprise.”
In a final warning directed at anyone considering association with APP, Ngoforo emphasized the certainty of the party’s judicial fate and the reputational consequences of remaining aboard a sinking ship. “Let me be absolutely clear to every politician, every candidate, every citizen being recruited by Ugochinyere and his agents: APP will be delisted from INEC’s register when the Federal High Court rules on this matter,” he declared. “The evidence is overwhelming. The legal arguments are irrefutable. INEC will not defend the party. The Supreme Court has already affirmed the deregistration. There is no escape, no procedural trick, no appeal that will save APP from judicial extinction. If you join this party now, if you accept positions in Ugochinyere’s phantom structures, if you participate in their sham congresses, you are associating yourself with proven fraud that will be formally declared illegal in a matter of weeks. Your name will be permanently linked to this scandal. Your judgment will be forever questioned. And when APP is delisted and you are left without a platform for 2027, you will have no one to blame but yourself for believing Ugochinyere’s lies despite the mountain of evidence proving he was lying. Ugochinyere must stop deceiving Nigerians. The game is over. The fraud has been exposed. And on April 16, the Federal High Court in Owerri will take the first formal step toward ending this embarrassing chapter in Nigeria’s electoral history.“
