The Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, fixed hearing in the two separate appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Turaki-led faction of the Party is seeking to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision that invalidated its the Ibadan National Convention held on November 15-16, 2025.
A five-member panel of Justices of the Supreme Court led by Justice Lawal Garba, granted the Turaki faction’s application for accelerated hearing and departure from the rules to abridge the time for filing briefs of argument.
In the first appeal, filed by the Turaki-led group against the PDP faction loyal to the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, the court directed that hearing notices should be served on Mohammed Abdulrahman, the seventh respondent, who was not represented when the matter came up on Tuesday.
During the proceedings at the apex court, Chris Uche, SAN, counsel to the Turaki faction, informed the court of the pending applications, and emphasised the need for urgency to align with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) timetable ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Uche also filed an affidavit of extreme urgency.
However, Counsel to Austin Nwachukwu and two others, Emmanuel Ukala SAN, requested 15 days to file his response, citing the need to obtain all relevant court records from the Court of Appeal’s decision nullifying the Ibadan Convention.
Similarly, counsel for INEC, Kingsley Magbim, Esq., in like manner, did not oppose the application, but sought 10 days to file their Respondents’ Brief.
However, the Supreme Court directed all the nine respondents to file their replies within five days each and went ahead to fix April 22, 2026, for the hearing of the appeal.
The apex court ordered that all briefs are to be filed on or before the April 21, 2026.
Similarly, in the second appeal, involving the Turaki-led faction against former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and others, the Supreme Court also granted accelerated hearing and abridgement of time, and fixed April 22 for hearing.
Lamido had sued over his exclusion from the national chairmanship contest, which led to Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court to issue orders halting the convention.
The Federal High Court and Court of Appeal largely ruled against the Turaki faction by nullifying the Ibadan Convention, and also barred INEC from recognising its outcomes.
The lower court also restricted the Turaki-led faction access to the national secretariat in some rulings.
Accordingly, the Turaki group appealed the judgement of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, stressing that the matter borders on internal party affairs which is not justiciable.
The federal high court in Abuja had stopped the PDP faction led by the then PDP Governors Forum led by Seyi Makinde and Bala Mohammed of Oyo and Bauchi States respectively, from going ahead with its national convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2025 in Ibadan.
In his ruling, Justice James Omotosho, then of the Federal High Court, held 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.
Similarly, former Governor of Jigawa State, Lamido sued the PDP for allegedly denying him the opportunity to purchase the nomination form to enable him contest for the chairmanship position of the party at its convention.
In a separate ruling on November 11, 2025, Justice Peter Lifu, of the Federal High Court, Abuja granted a temporary order restraining the PDP from proceeding with the planned convention pending the determination of the substantive suit filed by Lamido.
Justice Lifu on November 14, 2025, made a final order restraining the PDP from going ahead with its national convention.
Lifu held 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.
The Supreme Court having considered the facts deposed to in the affidavit in support of the appellant’s application, granted same and abridged time to five days for the Respondents to file their Respondents’ Brief, and two days for the Appellants’ Reply Brief (where necessary).
