The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday reserved judgment in a high-stakes appeal over the protracted leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following the disputed outcome of its 2025 national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The appeal, marked SC/CV/164/2026, was filed by a faction of the party led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, which emerged from the November 15–16, 2025 convention and is seeking validation of its leadership.
A five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, reserved judgment after parties adopted their final written addresses, stating that a date for the verdict would be communicated.
The appellants, represented by Chief Paul Erokoro (SAN), urged the court to overturn earlier rulings of the lower courts which nullified the Ibadan convention, and to dismiss a cross-appeal filed by a rival faction aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
However, counsel to the respondents, including representatives of Sule Lamido and the Wike-backed bloc, challenged the competence of the appeal, arguing that the dispute transcends internal party affairs and was rightly adjudicated by the courts.
The crisis stems from conflicting judgments over the legality of the Ibadan convention, which produced the Turaki-led executives despite a subsisting court order halting the exercise.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had restrained the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the convention without including Lamido as a contestant for the position of national chairman.
The court held that Lamido, a founding member of the party, was unlawfully excluded after being denied nomination forms, in violation of the party’s constitution.
Despite the order, the PDP went ahead with the convention—an action later condemned by the Court of Appeal, which described it as “contemptuous” and a “gross abuse of court process.”
The appellate court ruled that the party ought to have sought a stay of execution rather than proceeding in defiance of the subsisting judgment.
The apex court is also considering a separate but related appeal filed by the PDP’s National Working Committee and National Executive Committee, challenging another appellate ruling that invalidated the convention.
In that decision, the Court of Appeal upheld earlier judgments which found that the party failed to meet statutory requirements, including conducting valid state congresses in at least 14 states before the convention.
The court further ruled that notices for the convention were improperly issued, as they lacked the endorsement of the party’s national secretary, rendering the exercise null and void.
It also affirmed that INEC was right to withhold recognition of the convention, having not been properly notified in line with the Electoral Act and constitutional provisions.
Meanwhile, the crisis has deepened with the emergence of parallel leadership structures within the party.
While the Turaki-led faction continues to lay claim to legitimacy, the Wike-aligned bloc has since conducted a separate convention in Abuja and reportedly secured a court order granting it access to the PDP national secretariat.
The outcome of the Supreme Court’s pending judgment is expected to be decisive in determining the authentic leadership of the PDP and shaping the party’s internal stability ahead of future political contests.
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