The political defections of Peter Obi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and other opposition figures from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) on May 3, 2026, have come under renewed legal scrutiny following last Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment restoring key provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.
Obi and Kwankwaso formally joined the NDC on May 3 after leaving the ADC, a move widely reported at the time as part of the opposition realignment ahead of the 2027 general elections.
But the Supreme Court’s September 24 decision has reopened questions about the legal consequences of party switching where membership records submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are involved.
In a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel led by Justice Adamu Jauro, the apex court allowed INEC’s appeal and restored Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which had earlier been invalidated by the Court of Appeal. The court also awarded N2 million in costs against the Zenith Labour Party.
The restored provisions require political parties to operate with membership registers submitted to INEC and restrict participation in party primaries to members whose names appear on the relevant register.
It is against this legal background that Obono-obla argues that the circumstances surrounding the May 3 defections deserve closer examination.
Seven days that could prove crucial
May 3 is significant because it fell seven days before the reported May 10 deadline for submission of the relevant party membership registers.
Obono-obla’s argument is that the date of a defection, by itself, may not settle the question of whether the transfer was legally effective.
According to his interpretation, a politician leaving one party must first ensure that the old party formally removes his or her details from its membership register before registering with another party.
That, he argues, raises a crucial factual question: were the names and National Identification Numbers (NINs) of those who moved from ADC to NDC properly removed from the former party’s register before the new register was submitted to INEC?
If the same individual remained on both registers, Obono-obla contends that the restored statutory regime could create a dual-membership problem.