The Supreme Court of Nigeria has declared the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party held on November 15 and 16, 2025, in Ibadan, Oyo State, “null, void and of no effect,” nullifying in its entirety the convention that produced Kabiru Turaki SAN as National Chairman and the entire National Working Committee that the convention elected, with the court condemning the PDP’s conduct in holding the convention in defiance of a subsisting Federal High Court order as “nothing but madness, gross irresponsibility, quite contemptuous and clearly making a mockery of a very serious business.”
The judgment, delivered on Thursday, April 30, 2026, by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, was decided by a 3-2 majority, with Justices Stephen Jonah Adah (who wrote the lead judgment), Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme, and Mohammed Lawal Garba forming the majority, while Justices Haruna Simon Tsammani and Abubakar Sadiq Umar dissented.
The ruling effectively wipes out the Turaki-led National Working Committee in its entirety, meaning every officer elected at the Ibadan convention, from the National Chairman to the National Secretary to every other national officer, holds no valid position. All decisions taken at the convention, all appointments made by the Turaki NWC, and all actions flowing from the convention are similarly voided.
The judgment does not install any alternative leadership but, by nullifying the convention, returns the PDP to the leadership structure that existed before November 15, 2025, which was the Umar Iliya Damagun-led acting NWC from which the convention process originated.
Two Appeals, One Outcome
The Supreme Court determined two related appeals arising from the same PDP convention crisis.
SC/CV/164/2026 originated from the suit filed by Alhaji Sule Lamido at the Federal High Court, in which Lamido, a former Jigawa State Governor and PDP presidential aspirant, challenged the party’s refusal to sell him a nomination form to contest for the position of National Chairman at the convention. The Federal High Court ruled in Lamido’s favour and ordered the PDP to sell him the form and suspend the convention until it complied. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. The PDP appealed to the Supreme Court.
SC/CV/166/2026 originated from the suit filed by three PDP state-level officials Hon. Austine Nwachukwu (PDP Chairman, Imo State), Hon. Amah Abraham Nnanna (PDP Chairman, Abia State), and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South Zone) who challenged the conduct of the convention on grounds that proper congresses had not been held to elect delegates, that the mandatory 21-day notice to INEC was defective, and that the convention violated the PDP’s own constitution and the Electoral Act. Senator Samuel Anyanwu (National Secretary), Hon. Umar Bature (National Organizing Secretary), and Umar Iliya Damagun (National Chairman) were among the respondents in this case.
Both appeals were dismissed by the majority, meaning the Supreme Court affirmed the decisions of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal that had ruled against the PDP.
“The Rule Of Law Is Not An Ornamental Ideal”
Justice Adah, who delivered the lead judgment in the first appeal, provided one of the most powerful judicial condemnations of political party lawlessness in recent Nigerian legal history.
“The recurring spectacle of calculated defiance of law and judicial authority by political actors in Nigeria must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” Justice Adah stated. “The rule of law is not an ornamental ideal to be invoked in rhetoric and discarded in practice; it is the foundational architecture upon which the legitimacy of governance rests.”
“A democracy cannot survive where those who seek to govern operate outside the law. The erosion of legal norms breeds instability, weakens institutions, and ultimately destroys public confidence in governance. The rule of law demands fidelity, not convenience; obedience, not opportunism,” the justice declared.
The Forum Shopping Condemnation
The court’s most devastating finding was that the PDP, having received an unfavourable order from the Federal High Court directing it to suspend the convention, did not appeal the order as the law requires but instead went to a court of coordinate jurisdiction, obtained a contradictory order, and proceeded to hold the convention in defiance of the Federal High Court’s original order.
“The appellant not only contemptuously ignored the order of the Federal High Court. The appellant did not go on appeal as is her right under the Constitution but went to another High Court of coordinate jurisdiction to obtain an order of that court to override the existing order of the Federal High Court and carried on with the Party Convention,” Justice Adah stated.
“What this is, is nothing but an abuse of process ridiculing the due administration of justice in Nigeria. Contempt of court is not as horrifying as an abuse of the process of court. In clear terms what is grievous here is the act of abuse and interfering with the due process of administration of justice. This type of abuse of court process is unpardonable,” the justice declared.
“Madness And Gross Irresponsibility”
Justice Nwosu-Iheme, in her concurring judgment in the second appeal, used language that was even more forceful.
“Not only did they flagrantly disobey the orders of the Federal High Court, they proceeded to taunt the Court by going to a High Court in Oyo State which is clearly a court of coordinate jurisdiction to get a counter-order in their favour,” Justice Nwosu-Iheme stated.
“This is nothing but madness, gross irresponsibility, quite contemptuous and clearly making a mockery of a very serious business. I condemn it in very strong terms,” the justice declared.
“The said convention which is a product of this madness and irresponsibility is accordingly declared null and void and of no effect whatsoever. All the decisions arrived at by this full-blown madness are also set aside,” Justice Nwosu-Iheme concluded.
Warning To Judges
Justice Nwosu-Iheme extended her condemnation beyond the PDP to the judges who facilitated the forum shopping.
“I also condemn the unethical conduct of some judges who make their courts available for forum shopping, not due to poor knowledge of the law, but deliberate mischief, thereby diminishing the majesty of the courts and the entire judiciary. They are simply playing with fire with all the attendant consequences,” the justice stated.
The condemnation of judicial officers who enabled the PDP’s defiance by issuing contradictory orders from coordinate courts is unprecedented in its directness. The Supreme Court effectively accused unnamed judges of acting with “deliberate mischief” rather than mere error, suggesting that the judicial facilitation of forum shopping is a matter for disciplinary action rather than appellate correction.
The Internal Affairs Exception
The majority rejected the PDP’s argument that the suit concerned internal party affairs over which courts have no jurisdiction.
Justice Adah acknowledged the long line of Supreme Court authorities establishing that courts should not interfere in the domestic affairs of political parties but held that the present case fell outside that principle.
“These decisions are perfectly in place and they remain the law, but where, as in the instant case, a political party violates its own constitution and rubbishes the Electoral Act and the Constitution, the court must intervene to prevent anarchy and ensure the survival of democracy in Nigeria,” Justice Adah stated.
“The appellant and other political parties in Nigeria are not above the law. They are registered under the authority of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to promote democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria,” he added.
“Internal democracy is not a slogan; it is a legal imperative. The courts will not hesitate to intervene where party actions breach statutory or constitutional provisions,” the justice declared.
He explained that the suit transcended internal affairs because it involved INEC’s statutory oversight role: “Where the acts complained of concern the performance of statutory or oversight obligations of a party to the suit such as INEC, a claim for injunctive relief enforcing or restraining such acts transcends the realm of internal party affairs and becomes justiciable.”
The Convention Formally Nullified
Justice Adah explicitly nullified the convention: “The Party Convention of the appellant conducted on 15th and 16th November, 2025, in defiance of the subsisting order of the Federal High Court in its Judgment delivered on the 14th day of November, 2025, in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/2299/2025, is null, void and of no effect and consequence. It is accordingly nullified.”
