The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki seeking to overturn the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national convention, held in Ibadan last year.
Justice Lawal Garba, who led the five-member panel of justices, made the announcement on Wednesday, shortly after lawyers representing parties in the appeal adopted their written addresses for and against the appeal.
Similarly, the Supreme Court has also reserved judgment in the appeal by the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, David Mark, concerning the leadership dispute of the opposition party.
In the case of the PDP, a five-member panel, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, announced that the date of the judgment will be communicated to their lawyers. According to Justice Garba, the judgment would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all parties in the appeal.
The Turaki group had asked the apex court to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision invalidating the Ibadan National Convention held on November 15 and 16, 2025. The Turaki group told the apex court that the matter borders on internal party affairs of the party, which are not justiciable, and that due processes were followed.
The lower courts had ruled against the Turaki faction, nullifying the Ibadan Convention, barring INEC from recognising its outcomes, and restricting access to the national secretariat in some rulings.
The suits by the Turaki-led PDP are against the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on March 9, affirming two judgments of the Federal High Court in Abuja that ordered the PDP not to hold its national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025, until it complied with relevant statutory provisions, including the Electoral Act and Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties (2022).
The Federal High Court in Abuja had stopped the Turaki-led PDP from going ahead with its national convention slated for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan.
The trial judge, Justice James Omotosho, held in his judgment that the evidence before the court showed that the party failed to hold valid state congresses before the planned convention as stipulated in the 1999 constitution and INEC guidelines, as well as its own constitution.
Justice Omotosho’s judgment delivered on October 31, 2025, was in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2120/2025 filed by three aggrieved members of the party – Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP Chairman), Hon. Amah Abraham Nnanna (Abia PDP Chairman), and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South).
The second was the judgment by Justice Peter Lifu in which the PDP was ordered not to proceed with its planned convention until it afforded a former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, the opportunity to prepare and contest as a chairmanship candidate in the elective convention. Lamido filed the suit challenging his exclusion from the national chairmanship contest, which led to the court issuing orders halting the convention.
He argued that the party denied him the opportunity to purchase the chairmanship nomination form to enable him to participate in the convention. On November 14, Justice Lifu made a final order restraining the PDP from conducting its national convention, holding that the evidence before the court established that Lamido was unjustly denied the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest the position of national chairman of the party, in violation of the PDP constitution and its internal regulations.
Meanwhile, the now main opposition party, ADC, has been in confusion after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, derecognized the Mark-led faction of the party. Before the Supreme Court, Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, who represented Mark, urged the court to allow the appeal.
He submitted that the apex court had on March 21, 2025, judgment put an end to the issue before the court, when it held that, “no court has jurisdiction to entertain cases bordering on internal affairs of political parties”.
However, Robert Emukpero, SAN, who represented the 1st respondent, Nafiu Gombe, urged the apex court to reject the appeal and affirm the judgment of the lower court, which held that the case of the appellant was premature and dismissed it. A three-member panel of the appellate court had dismissed the appeal of David Mark challenging the jurisdiction of Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to entertain the suit by Gombe against the leadership of the ADC.”
