The national leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Seriake Dickson, has declared that his party will contest the 2027 elections, dismissing last Friday’s court ruling as legally defective and lacking jurisdictional basis.

Speaking on Channels Television, the former Bayelsa governor and lawyer assured members and candidates that the party remained on course, insisting that the NDC was on the ballot, had not been deregistered and would not be deregistered.

The ruling by a Federal High Court in Lokoja has been read in some quarters as undoing the earlier judgment that compelled INEC to register the party. Dickson rejected that interpretation, arguing that the court itself did not deregister the NDC and issued no positive, mandatory order directing INEC to do so, and that court orders must be construed strictly.

He described the ruling as one issued by a court that ordinarily lacks jurisdiction to sit on appeal over its own earlier judgment, and disputed both its legal basis and propriety. He confirmed the party had filed for a stay of execution and an injunction restraining any adverse action by INEC, and was pursuing an appeal.

Dickson dismissed the body that triggered the ruling as an unregistered, dormant association unknown to law and unable to sustain such a case. He said primaries had been concluded at all levels and monitored by INEC, adding that he himself was a senatorial candidate. On state police, he backed decentralized policing but urged a phased rollout starting at zonal level, cautioning that the current electoral climate was not the right moment for full implementation.