UPDATED: Supreme Court voids Ibadan PDP convention, clears way for Wike-backed group

UPDATED: Supreme Court voids Ibadan PDP convention, clears way for Wike-backed group

The court pronounced the convention invalid in separate judgments on two related appeals regarding the internal affairs of the party.

The first was an appeal filed by former Jigsaw State Governor Sule Lamido challenging the party’s refusal to issue him a nomination form, which prevented him from contesting for a leadership position of the party.

The second matter sought a judicial recognition of the outcomes of the 2025 Ibadan convention, including the host party leaders elected at the meeting.

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision in a 3-2 split judgement in both appeals.

The majority decisions voided the convention for being held in violating of subsisting court orders.

The judgements effectively end the challenge to the faction of the party aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

The Wike group held its convention in March, re-electing Abdulrahman Mohammed and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

Delivering the lead majority judgement on the appeal by the Turaki-led faction, Chioma Nwosu-Iheme said, “Parties must obey court orders whether they favour them or not.”

She condemned some judges who use their courts for mischief and some lawyers who do not live up to their responsibilities.

She warned that if this continues, “we will be heading for doomsday.”

“We will not fold our hands to this,” she said.

She held that the parties had no reason to seek judgement in any court following the initial restraining order.

She said the Ibadan convention flagrantly disobeyed the order by Judge James Omotosho.of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

“They desperately and brazenly went to another court to forum-shop.

“The convention is a product of the disobedience of the court. The convention is condemned and nullified.

“The appeal is dismissed, the cross-appeal is also dismissed, and I make no order as to costs,” the Supreme Court justice ruled.

Both Justices Stephen Adah and Lawal Garba agreed with the lead judgement.

This judgement upheld the lower courts’ decisions barring the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising the outcome of the Ibadan convention.

However, Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Umar dissented from the lead judgment.

Mr Umar said the issues were related to internal affairs of a political party. He granted the appeal on favour of the appellants but dismissed their cross-appeal.

Mr Tsammani also said, “Issues related to political parties are purely domestic and not matters for the court.

“If our courts continue to indulge them, it will damage our political environment… it should not be the case in a democratic society.”

He warned that politicians should eschew “political abracadabra.”

This is one of the leadership disputes that have fractured the opposition PDP ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Similarly, in Mr Lamido’s case, Mr Adah who delivered the lead judgment, held that the convention which produced Mr Turaki and his group as the leaders of the party was conducted in disobedience to court orders.

This judgment barred INEC from recognising the outcome of the Ibadan convention.

Mr Turaki’s faction filed the appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the 9 April decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, invalidating the national convention organised by the Turaki-led faction, which was held in Ibadan, Oyo State, between 15 and 16 November 2025.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeals brought before it by the Mr Turaki-led faction of the party.

The court also awarded N2 million as costs against the appellants, comprising Mr Turaki and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

In its unanimous decision, the appellate court upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court, which restrained INEC from recognising or validating the proposed convention.

The court held that the Federal High Court had jurisdiction to hear the case, rejecting the argument by the Turaki faction that the dispute was purely an internal affair of the party.

The panel said the appellants could not “repackage a clear violation of the party constitution and that of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as an internal party affair.”

In the judgment, Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam of the Court of Appeal also held that the PDP violated constitutional provisions required before such a convention could become valid.

He said no valid notice of the convention was served on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as required by law.

The judge held that the case of the aggrieved PDP members who instituted the suit against the party was not about internal party affairs, as erroneously argued, but a bid to compel INEC to comply with its statutory functions in relation to party conventions.

The appellate court also noted that valid congresses were not held in more than 14 states as required by law before the 2025 convention was conducted.

Having failed to comply with the relevant laws, the Court of Appeal said the Federal High Court was right in assuming jurisdiction and granting a restraining order against INEC from accepting or recognising the outcome of the PDP 2025 national convention.

The Turaki-led faction held its convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, in 2025, which was challenged by members of the rival group.

Different Federal High Court judges have since nullified the convention and all the decisions taken there. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, whose decision the Turaki faction is now challenging at the Supreme Court.

The PDP has grappled with various crises since losing power to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

The party’s crises intensified after the 2023 general elections when disagreement over the zoning of its presidential ticket gradually tore it into factions.

Since last year, the crisis has spiralled out of control. Waves of defection have reduced the number of states under its control to two, just as the ranks of its lawmakers in the National Assembly and across state Houses of Assembly have reduced drastically.