Court Voids PDP Ibadan Convention, Upholds Abdulrahman Led Caretaker Committee

A Federal High Court in Ibadan has set aside the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) disputed national convention held in November 2025, ruling that the exercise violated existing court orders and has no legal standing.

In a judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Uche Agomoh ruled that the convention was held in clear defiance of two subsisting court orders. The court consequently recognised the caretaker committee led by Mohammed Abdulrahman, alongside Senator Samuel Anyanwu, as the party’s only legitimate National Working Committee (NWC) pending the conduct of a lawful national convention.

The suit, marked FHC/IB/CS/121/2025, was filed by a faction of the party led by Kabiru Turaki, seeking judicial validation of the Ibadan convention and the national officers said to have emerged from it.

Justice Agomoh dismissed the request, holding that the court could not legitimise actions taken in contempt of its own orders. He described the move to seek approval after disregarding court rulings as futile and legally untenable.

The judge further restrained Turaki and other individuals purportedly elected at the convention from presenting themselves as national officers of the PDP, declaring all decisions taken at the gathering null and void.

The court held that the party must continue to operate strictly under the caretaker committee until a valid national convention is organised in line with the law.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the PDP caretaker committee, Chief Ferdinand Oshioke Orbih, SAN, said the ruling reaffirmed the supremacy of the rule of law in political affairs.

He noted that the court rejected attempts to legitimise what he described as an unlawful convention, stressing that political ambition must not override judicial authority. According to him, all structures and decisions arising from the Ibadan convention have ceased to have effect.

Orbih added that the ruling sends a clear warning to political actors on the dangers of ignoring court orders, noting that such actions could destabilise the democratic process.

The judgment comes amid a prolonged leadership crisis within the PDP. The party went ahead with the Ibadan convention despite an earlier order by a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, directing that the exercise be suspended.

That Abuja suit was filed by former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, who alleged that he was denied the opportunity to purchase a nomination form to contest for the party’s chairmanship, contrary to the PDP’s constitution and guidelines