The Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier ruling stopping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its proposed national convention in Ibadan.
In a judgment delivered by a three-member panel on Monday, the appellate court dismissed an appeal filed by a PDP faction led by former Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki, SAN. The group had challenged the authority of the Federal High Court to hear a case relating to the party’s planned convention.
The appeal was one of nine harmonised cases brought before the court by the Turaki-led faction. The appeals sought to overturn an earlier court order that restrained the PDP from holding its national convention earlier scheduled for November 14 and 15, 2025.
However, in a unanimous decision, the Appeal Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court. The panel ruled that the Federal High Court had the jurisdiction to entertain the suit and was right to issue the order preventing the convention from going ahead.
The court also upheld the directive barring the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or validating the proposed convention.
Rejecting the appellants’ argument that the matter was purely an internal affair of the party, the judges stated that the case involved alleged breaches of both the PDP constitution and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to the panel, the appellants could not “repackage a clear violation of the party constitution and that of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as an internal party affair.”
Consequently, the court dismissed the appeal and ordered the appellants to pay ₦2 million in costs.