Supreme Court Reserves Judgment in PDP Convention Crisis Appeal

The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday reserved judgment in an appeal brought by a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, challenging the nullification of the party’s 2025 national convention.

A five-member panel headed by Justice Lawal Garba said a date for the ruling would be communicated after counsel for all parties adopted their final written addresses.

The Turaki-led group is seeking to overturn a March 9 decision of the Court of Appeal, which upheld earlier rulings invalidating the PDP’s convention held in Ibadan on November 15 and 16, 2025.

At the hearing, the appellants argued that the dispute concerns internal party affairs and is therefore not justiciable. They maintained that due process was followed in organising the convention.

However, lower courts have consistently ruled against the faction. These decisions nullified the convention, restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising its outcome, and issued orders affecting access to the party’s national secretariat.

The appellate court had affirmed two judgments of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which barred the PDP from conducting the convention pending compliance with the Electoral Act and the 2022 Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties.

In one of the rulings, Justice James Omotosho held that the party failed to conduct valid state congresses as required by law and its constitution, rendering the planned convention invalid.

In a separate decision, Justice Peter Lifu restrained the party from proceeding with the exercise until it allowed Sule Lamido to participate in the national chairmanship race, having found that he was unjustly excluded.

The legal challenges were initiated by aggrieved party members, including state executives from Imo, Abia and the South-South region, deepening a protracted leadership dispute within the PDP that now awaits final determination by the apex court.