The battle for control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) escalated on Tuesday as supporters of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the validity of the party’s November 15–16 national convention held in Ibadan.
The faction wants the court to declare the convention invalid and to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising any officers or decisions that emerged from it.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2501/2025, the plaintiffs, the PDP (as listed in the filing), acting national chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, argue that the convention was held in disregard of what they describe as existing court judgements that should have guided the party’s actions.
They insist that three Federal High Court rulings were sidestepped in the lead-up to the event: the October 31 judgement in Austine Nwachukwu v INEC; the interim and final rulings of November 11 and 14 in Sule Lamido v PDP; and the May 31, 2023, decision in Nyesom Wike v PDP.
According to them, those judgements affected the validity of the statutory 21-day notice issued for the convention and should have prevented the party from going ahead.
Despite this, the suit claims, the fifth to twenty-fifth defendants moved ahead with the Ibadan convention, producing new national officers and announcing suspensions and expulsions that mostly affected Wike-aligned members.
The filing also touches on tensions at the PDP national secretariat. In an affidavit, Anyanwu says a rival camp attempted on November 18 to ‘forcibly take control’ of Wadata Plaza and Legacy House.
He further alleges that instead of enforcing earlier court orders, security agencies shut the buildings and blocked him and the acting chairman from accessing their offices.
“The 2nd to 4th defendants have now sealed up the premises of the 1st plaintiff and denied the 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs access to their offices,” the affidavit stated.
The plaintiffs want the court to affirm that INEC, the police and the DSS are bound to enforce the earlier judgements. They also seek orders stopping any institution from recognising the Ibadan convention and directing security agencies to restore their access to the party secretariat.
The suit additionally asks the court to clarify whether any authority can lawfully validate the convention given the pending judgements.
The case has not yet been assigned to a judge.
