A Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, has nullified the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Convention held in the city between November 15 and 16, 2025.
The court further ruled that the Caretaker Committee led by Mohammed Abdulrahman, alongside Senator Samuel Anyanwu, remains the only recognised National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, pending the conduct of a valid national convention.
The ruling followed a suit filed by a faction of the party led by Kabiru Turaki, marked Suit No: FHC/IB/CS/121/2025, which sought judicial recognition of the Ibadan convention and validation of the NWC that emerged from it.
Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Uche Agomoh held that the convention was conducted in blatant violation of two subsisting judgments of the same court. The judge described the attempt to seek judicial approval for actions taken in defiance of court orders as an exercise in futility.
Consequently, the court barred Turaki and all other officials purportedly elected at the convention from parading themselves as national officers of the PDP with immediate effect.
Justice Agomoh further set aside all decisions taken at the Ibadan convention, declaring that the PDP can only lawfully operate through the caretaker committee until a proper and legally compliant national convention is held.
Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the PDP Caretaker Committee, Chief Ferdinand Oshioke Orbih, SAN, described the ruling as a significant boost for Nigeria’s democracy.
According to him, the claimants had sought judicial endorsement of what he termed an illegal convention, but the court decisively rejected the move.
He said the judgment reaffirmed the supremacy of the rule of law over political expediency, stressing that all actions, decisions, and structures arising from the nullified convention had been completely invalidated.
Orbih added that the ruling underscored the inevitability of the caretaker committee continuing to manage the affairs of the party until a valid national convention is conducted in strict compliance with the law.
He noted that the decision sends a strong warning to political actors on the dangers of disregarding court judgments, cautioning that such actions could plunge the party—and the polity—into chaos.
The judgment is the latest development in the protracted leadership crisis rocking the PDP, which went ahead to hold the controversial national elective convention in Ibadan in November 2025 despite existing court orders.
Earlier, a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, had ordered the suspension of the PDP convention following a suit filed by former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido.
Lamido had challenged the convention process, alleging that he was denied the opportunity to purchase a nomination form to contest for the party’s chairmanship, contrary to the PDP constitution and its established guidelines.
