A legal practitioner, Ekene Aninze, Esq., has questioned the recent decision of Justice Isa Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, to review and set aside the court’s earlier judgment directing the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) as a political party.
According to Aninze, the ruling raises significant constitutional and procedural concerns regarding the doctrine of functus officio, which holds that once a court has delivered its final judgment, it has exhausted its jurisdiction over the matter except in limited circumstances recognized by law.
He argued that a court may only revisit its own judgment in exceptional situations, such as where it lacked jurisdiction, where a party was not properly served, or where the judgment was procured through fraud. In his view, none of those conditions existed in the NDC case.
Aninze further noted that the Peace Movement Party (PMP) was not a party to the original suit instituted by the NDC against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which challenged the commission’s administrative decision. He questioned why the court did not direct that the PMP be joined as a necessary party during the original proceedings if its participation was considered indispensable.
He also expressed concern over the timing of the application, pointing out that it was brought more than six months after the original judgment. According to him, if the court considered further proceedings necessary, it could have reopened aspects of the case without setting aside the substance of its earlier judgment.
The lawyer maintained that the appropriate legal avenue for the Peace Movement Party would have been to seek leave to participate in any appeal arising from the judgment, rather than pursuing a review of a decision in proceedings to which it was not originally a party.
Aninze argued that the development raises broader questions about the scope of judicial powers and the finality of court judgments. He warned that allowing trial courts to effectively revisit and overturn their own final decisions outside recognized legal exceptions could have far-reaching implications for legal certainty and public confidence in the judiciary.
His remarks represent his legal opinion and contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding the Federal High Court’s decision to set aside its earlier judgment in the NDC registration case.
