Supreme Court fixes date as PDP leadership crisis heads for final showdown

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has fixed April 22, 2026, to hear two critical appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a bid to reclaim control of the embattled opposition party.

The move follows a series of bruising legal defeats for the Turaki group at the lower courts, which invalidated the party’s Ibadan National Convention held in November 2025 and effectively locked the faction out of the national secretariat.

A five-member panel of the apex court, presided over by Justice Lawal Garba, signaled the gravity of the internal crisis on Tuesday by granting an application for an accelerated hearing.

This procedural leap abridges the time for all parties to file their briefs of argument, reflecting the “extreme urgency” cited by the Turaki group as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) begins rolling out the timetable for the 2027 general elections.

The first appeal targets a rival PDP group loyal to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike. During Tuesday’s proceedings, the court ordered that hearing notices be served on Mohammed Abdulrahman, a key respondent who was absent from the session.

Lead counsel for the Turaki faction, Chris Uche, argued that the apex court’s intervention is vital to prevent the party’s administrative collapse.

However, Emmanuel Ukala, representing the pro-Wike camp, initially requested fifteen days to respond, a timeline the Supreme Court slashed to just five days for all nine respondents to ensure the April 22 date remains firm.

The second appeal involves a parallel dispute with former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and others. That legal firestorm stems from Lamido’s exclusion from the national chairmanship contest, which prompted a Federal High Court order that originally sought to halt the Ibadan Convention.

The lower courts had consistently ruled against the Turaki-led executives, barring INEC from recognizing any outcomes of the November gathering and granting control of party assets to rival factions.

At the heart of the Turaki group’s defence is the argument that the leadership tussle constitutes an internal party affair.

They maintained that the judiciary lacked jurisdiction to interfere in the domestic politics of the PDP and asserted that all constitutional procedures were strictly followed during the Ibadan Convention.