•Delay just isn’t denial: PDP leaders see hope in court docket’s resolution
•Why PDP can’t go forward with its nationwide conference —— Courtroom
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA—Shocked by yesterday’s court docket ruling stopping the Peoples Democratic Get together, PDP, from going forward with its nationwide conference scheduled to carry in Ibadan, Oyo state on November 15 and 16,
The occasion described the court docket resolution as an assault on Nigeria’s democratic course of and vowed to enchantment the choice.
The occasion, in an announcement issued final night time by its Nationwide Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, charged its members to go forward with the preparations in direction of holding the conference.
We’re appalled by the court docket order —PDP
The assertion, titled ,”PDP Deliberate Nationwide Conference Not Vitiated by Courtroom”, learn:
“The Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP) is appalled by the judgement of the Federal Excessive Courtroom Abuja, presided over by Honorable Justice Kolawole Omotosho immediately, (yesterday) describing it as an assault on Nigeria’s democratic course of.
Nonetheless, the PDP states that the judgment of the court docket doesn’t vitiate its potential to proceed with the processes and actions in direction of the Nationwide Conference to elect new Nationwide Officers to pilot the affairs of the Get together for the subsequent 4 years.
“Our Get together notes the latest judgement of the Supreme Courtroom which affirms the supremacy of a political occasion within the administration of its inside affairs. The PDP due to this fact fees its members, Chapter and Organs to stay steadfast and centered on preparations in direction of the holding of the Nationwide Conference of our Get together. Nonetheless, the PDP because the main opposition Get together in Nigeria dedicated to the Rule of Regulation has accordingly directed its legal professionals to take instant motion to enchantment this judgment in our unwavering dedication to uphold, defend and promote multi-party democracy in our nation”.
It’s handiwork of saboteurs —Damagum
Nationwide Chairman of the occasion, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, whereas reacting to the court docket resolution in an interview on nationwide tv, mentioned it was the handiwork of saboteurs.
In an identical response, former Deputy Nationwide Chairman of the occasion, Chief Olabode George, described Friday’s judgement of Justice James Omotosho of a Federal Excessive Courtroom, Abuja, as “the joke of the century, open recipe for anarchy and a show of judicial brigandage”.
Why PDP can’t maintain its conference —— Courtroom
The Federal Excessive Courtroom, within the judgement held that the occasion didn’t fulfil the statutory situation precedents that may allow it to prepare the conference.
In keeping with the court docket, proof earlier than it established that the occasion didn’t adjust to related provisions of the 1999 Structure, as amended, tips of the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee, INEC, in addition to its personal laws.
Whereas upholding the case that was introduced earlier than it by three aggrieved members of the occasion, Justice Omotosho, in his verdict that lasted over 4 hours, faulted the PDP for its failure to conduct legitimate state congresses earlier than it slated dates to carry a conference to elect its nationwide officers.
The plaintiffs- Hon. Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP Chairman), Hon. Amah Abraham Nnanna (Abia PDP Chairman) and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South, had within the go well with marked:
FHC/ABJ/CS/2120/2025, alleged that legitimate congresses weren’t carried out in 14 states of the federation earlier than the conference was fastened.
Cited as defendants within the matter had been; INEC; PDP; its Nationwide Chairman, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum; the Nationwide Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu; the Nationwide Organizing Secretary, Umar Bature; two nationwide officers of the occasion, Ali Odefa and Emmanuel Ogidi, in addition to the NWC and NEC of the occasion.
The court docket held that it was inconceivable for the conference to carry when congresses to supply delegates that may vote for the nationwide officers, had not been held within the numerous states. Moreover, it famous that notices for the nationwide conference had been signed by solely the Nationwide Chairman of the occasion, excluding the Nationwide Secretary.
Justice Omotosho held that such notices and correspondences amounted to a nullity within the eyes of the legislation, including that failure of the PDP to adjust to the laid down procedures, positioned the scheduled conference in jeopardy. Consequently, he directed the occasion to return and put its home so as, and to equally ship the statutory 21-day discover of conferences and congresses to INEC to allow it to observe the procceses.
The plaintiffs had contended that the 1999 Structure, as amended, made it obligatory for INEC to observe congress of each political occasion earlier than it may very well be deemed to have been validly carried out.
They advised the court docket that no legitimate discover was served on INEC for the aim of the deliberate conference.
The court docket, whereas agreeing with them, dismissed preliminary objections the defendants filed to problem its jurisdiction to meddle in what they insisted was an inside affair of a political occasion. The court docket proceeded to restrain INEC from receiving, publishing or recognizing the result of the conference slated for Ibadan, pending when the related legal guidelines and laws had been complied with by the PDP.
It held that the electoral physique was not obligated to present impact to the result of the conference a political occasion carried out with out strict adherence to the 1999 Structure, as amended, the Electoral Act 2022, and its personal tips.
The court docket confused that the occasion was not entitled to carry a nationwide conference till it supplied a correct framework for the election of delegates that may take part within the train.
In the meantime, in a associated improvement, the court docket, in a separate ruling that was delivered on Friday by Justice Peter Lifu, rejected an ex-parte utility a former governor of Jigawa state, Sule Lamido, filed for an interim injunction to restrain the PDP from going forward with the nationwide conference.
Lamido prayed the court docket to concern the interim order pending the listening to and dedication of a go well with he lodged earlier than it.
The erstwhile governor approached the court docket after he was denied a nomination kind to contest for the place of Nationwide Chairman of the occasion. Within the go well with marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2299/2025, he prayed the court docket to halt the conference and stop INEC from supervising it. He cited the PDP and INEC as 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu, who declined to grant the interim reduction, ordered the previous governor to place the defendants on discover to allow them to seem earlier than the court docket to indicate trigger why his prayers shouldn’t be granted. He subsequently adjourned the matter to November 6 for listening to.
It’s show of judicial brigandage — Bode George
By Dapo Akinrefon
In the meantime, former Deputy Nationwide Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has described Friday’s judgement of Justice James Omotosho of a Federal Excessive Courtroom, Abuja, stopping the occasion’s Nationwide Conference as “the joke of the century, open recipe for anarchy and a show of judicial brigandage”.
George, in his response to the decision, mentioned: “This judgement will devour this nation. It’s excessive time the choose put down his wig and robe to hitch politics. What’s going on? I name on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Nationwide Judicial Council to name this choose to order. Any judgement able to resulting in a breakdown of legislation and order ought to be prevented. What energy does he need to order the PDP to not have its Nationwide Conference? Has the judiciary gone to the canines? Throughout all our congresses resulting in this conference, INEC officers had been current.
“The electoral physique witnessed the process. They took notes. INEC just isn’t complaining. The choose didn’t even name INEC officers to crosscheck info, and inform him what they witnessed throughout our congresses. So, why is the choose complaining? Does he have a political curiosity?
“What sort of judgement is that this? Are we nonetheless in a democracy? We have now to watch out on this nation. The CJN and NJC ought to monitor a few of these judges earlier than they set our democracy on fireplace.
“PDP is the oldest and most skilled occasion within the nation immediately. Since 1998 after we shaped this occasion, we’ve got all the time adopted the legislation throughout our congresses and conventions. So, no person ought to train us what we already know.”
He lamented that the judiciary is getting used to truncate democracy within the largest black-populated nation on this planet. The PDP chief dismissed all of the grounds adduced for the judgement, stating that it wasn’t the prerogative of the court docket to dabble into the interior affairs of a political occasion in managing its affairs as entrenched in its inside dynamics and Structure.
Delay just isn’t denial: PDP leaders see hope in court docket’s resolution
By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
A sudden court docket order stopping the Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP) from holding its long-awaited nationwide conference has shaken Nigeria’s foremost opposition.
But, relatively than despair, occasion leaders are describing the event as a uncommon alternative, a pressured pause to heal outdated wounds and rebuild unity earlier than the 2027 elections.
The ruling by the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Abuja on Friday halted the PDP’s deliberate conference scheduled for November 15–16, exposing as soon as once more the deep-seated distrust, energy tussles, and procedural lapses which have lengthy plagued the occasion’s inside workings.
Justice James Omotosho, who delivered the ruling, cited violations of the PDP structure and electoral tips, successfully directing the occasion to “return and put its home so as.”
For a motion nonetheless struggling to rediscover its footing almost a decade after dropping energy, the judgment landed like a thunderclap, painful but in addition revealing. It served as each a setback and a sobering reminder that lots of the PDP’s issues are of its personal making.
From the grassroots to the nationwide hierarchy, unresolved grievances have festered for years, resurfacing with every election cycle. The aborted conference, which was to supply new nationwide officers and reposition the PDP for 2027, has now develop into one other casualty within the occasion’s lengthy battle with itself.
Inside hours of the ruling, the temper inside Wadata Plaza shifted from outrage to introspection. Whereas some members decried what they referred to as judicial overreach, others noticed windfall at work, a divine pause that might save the PDP from imploding. Their reactions recommended that many inside the fold now view the court docket’s intervention not as an impediment, however as a second of reckoning.
The judgment comes amid rising unrest throughout a number of state chapters. Weeks of bitter disputes over congresses within the South East and South South, notably in Anambra, Ebonyi, and elements of Rivers, had already forged a darkish cloud over preparations for the conference. Allegations of exclusion, manipulated delegate lists, and breaches of the occasion’s zoning method solely deepened current cracks.
Tensions boiled over when former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, clashed with occasion officers on the PDP headquarters over the sale of the chairmanship nomination kind. The incident, dramatic because it was, now seems to have been only one flashpoint in a a lot deeper disaster, one the court docket’s resolution has now uncovered in full.
Get together elders and stakeholders say the episode as soon as once more underscores how the PDP’s recurring inside contradictions have eroded its picture as Nigeria’s main opposition.
Insiders admit the state of affairs is nothing new, a well-known sample wherein outdated wounds reopen each election season, fueled by disputes the PDP has by no means totally resolved.
By Friday night, the ambiance inside the occasion was a mixture of nervousness, reduction, and cautious hope. Some nationwide officers privately lamented that the court docket order had stalled the PDP’s momentum. Others, nonetheless, referred to as it a ‘needed correction’, an opportunity to revive order, rebuild belief, and stop historical past from repeating itself.
Maybe most placing was the restrained response from the grassroots. From Imo to Kano and right down to Abuja, members spoke much less of anger and extra of renewal. Throughout interviews and statements, a typical chorus emerged: the PDP should cease working from its personal shadow and confront its inside contradictions if it actually hopes to return to energy.
REACTIONS
‘Delay just isn’t denial’ — Timothy Osadolor, PDP Deputy Nationwide Youth Chief
“Effectively, for me, as a lot because it’s fairly unlucky and disheartening for hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, together with occasion members and occasion admirers and followers, over this improvement, I additionally need the management of the occasion to look inwards and use this delay to do vital inside therapeutic and reconciliations.
“Too many points have been left unresolved. So, I consider that delay just isn’t denial. Though I do know we’re going to enchantment this explicit judgment, I don’t need the eye of the management to be on the enchantment.
“Their consideration ought to be too susceptible to what are the issues of our brothers who’re insisting that sure standards need to be met. All they’re asking for is that a whole zone, the South East, wants their congresses to be concluded, on the zonal stage, on the Anambra and the Ebonyi stage too.
“So, these are the primary causes for the conference to take a pause and handle. Recall that even the nationala secretary, ab initio, was a kind of who mentioned that he’s within the conference holding, however that the South East zonal congresses have to be concluded in order that there will probably be delegates from the South East.
“Anambra and Ebonyi notably, we’re so excited that there must also be nominations of delegates from these states. So, we are able to’t want away a big zone from our occasion and count on that the whole lot will probably be alright. For me, this judgment offers us room for legwork.
“For us to say, okay, what are the problems? What can we do between now and the fifteenth of August? In order that after we seem within the Enchantment Courtroom, we are able to go together with a uniform voice to say, we’ve got resolved.
That’s how I see it. This isn’t the time for any occasion to start out castigating that we’ve got gained, or you’ve misplaced, or you’ve misplaced, we’ve got gained.
“No. It’s the time for all occasion leaders and lovers of this occasion to sit down down, jaw-jaw, and give you the perfect technique to go. Okay.”
‘Courtroom has accomplished the precise factor’ — Hon. Austin Nwachukwu, Chairman, PDP Imo State
“Sure, that has all the time been our place and I like that God gave us victory immediately. I’m joyful that the court docket has mentioned the precise factor. That’s what I went to court docket for. The suitable factor ought to be accomplished, and that’s what I agree with.
The suitable factor ought to be accomplished. Okay. And that the occasion ought to do the precise factor. That’s what I went to ask in court docket by the lawsuit; that the precise factor ought to be accomplished. And the court docket has agreed that the precise factor ought to be accomplished.”
‘We should study to obey our personal guidelines’ — Rt. Hon. Jones Onyereri, Member, PDP BoT
“We’ve all the time mentioned this: that folks ought to study to do the precise issues. You possibly can’t go towards your occasion’s structure.
“You possibly can’t go towards the electoral tips. You possibly can’t go towards the electoral tips set by INEC and count on to go forward with the conference.
“I imply, it doesn’t make any sense. So, the court docket in its knowledge did the precise factor by telling them they’ll’t flout their very own legal guidelines. It’s not accomplished.
“First, the nationwide secretary is meant to concern correspondences for all conferences, all, with out exception. Sure, the nationwide chairman may summon a gathering, however to present life and its place to that summons, it have to be accomplished by the nationwide secretary.
, by sending the required correspondences. And so they wouldn’t try this. So, how do you count on it to start out? So, all these conferences have been nullified. So, it involves no concern. It’s like no conferences had been held. That’s what the court docket dominated.
“And all these congresses that weren’t monitored by INEC, we are able to’t flout INEC’s tips, they had been additionally nullified.
“, after which the difficulty of the South East and the South South. You recall that I had personally written petitions to all governors, personally signed by me, to say that that is flawed.
This man (Ali Odefa) has been expelled by the occasion. This man was expelled by the ward, by the native authorities, by the state. And confirmed by two totally different courts of competent jurisdiction.
Sure. So first, he’s been expelled. He’s not a member of the occasion. And he can’t be the nationwide vice chairman (South-East) . He can’t even summon any assembly on our behalf. And so they went forward with this. , and see the place the factor has introduced us to. The identical concern with the nationwide secretary.
“After we had been telling them that the structure mentioned they could resign, they went and adjusted the narrative and mentioned the structure mentioned they shall resign. And for 2 years we had been on the identical matter.
“So, I don’t know why folks can’t simply do the precise factor. I don’t know why it’s an issue to do the precise factor. Take a look at the South South concern. A correctly carried out congress affirmed by courts, and but you need to nullify it. Who does that? , so PDP, what is occurring to us is simply self-inflicted. After we do the precise factor, all of us go to the nationwide conference and everyone will probably be joyful. Whoever wins, so be it. Sure. Whoever wins, so be it.
“And in addition, there was an understanding that sure, we should always preserve the established order by way of zoning. So no matter is in any state ought to stay there. So why are you coming to vary it? , why are you coming to vary it? It doesn’t make sense. PDP, why would you not do that? As a result of this can be a occasion to reckon with. Sure. This can be a main opposition occasion on this nation.
There isn’t any one-party state. So this can be a viable opposition. So why would we need to kill the occasion by ourselves? It doesn’t make sense.
“, so anyway, the judgment of immediately has sealed each mark. So, all of us come again to the drafting board now and other people will probably be compelled to do the precise issues. In order that’s how the factor will finish”
Requested if he foresees any defections on account of the court docket judgement, the Board of Trustees member mentioned: “No, no; defection is a person factor now. I imply, you may’t cease anyone from defecting. Anyone can get up within the morning and determine to defect. So, you may’t cease it. To be sincere with you. So it doesn’t matter. Individuals have their causes.
“And let me inform you, anyone defecting now just isn’t due to what is occurring now. You see, they’d made up their minds way back to defect. Solely that they had been ready for the suitable time. So possibly that’s why they even instigated all these issues. Yeah. In order that they’ve causes to defect.”
No Time for Enchantment, Simply Obey the Order’ — PDP Chieftain, Kano State
Talking anonymously, a chieftain of the occasion from Kano state mentioned: “However there isn’t any time for enchantment earlier than the conference. There isn’t any time for enchantment in 15 days. They only need to comply with and obey the order. “Y Yo. u know, they zoned me out. They took the seat I used to be aspiring for on the conference to North Central, and seats from North Central to the North East. They took them to the North East after they left right here.
“I don’t even assume the conference ought to be allowed to carry in any respect till sure individuals are sanctioned, as a result of all these crises are plotted by one man who’s combating the occasion. This former governor who’s working underneath the APC administration, who has all the time been the difficulty. You see that even his blueprint is obvious, completely very clear, as a result of see the folks that took the case to court docket, now, the chairman of PDP in Imo State, which is certainly the nationwide secretary’s protégé. Additionally, the chairman of PDP in Abia State, who’s {that a} protégé of? Okezie Ikpeazu. Each Anyanwu and Ikpeazu belong to the ex-governor’s camp. So, it’s apparent now. It’s apparent. The blueprints are there.”
The temper inside the PDP captures a celebration torn between frustration and religion; bruised, but refusing to surrender. The court docket could have halted its conference, however amongst its members, there’s a rising perception that this pressured pause may develop into the reset the occasion has lengthy wanted.
For now, the opposition’s future hangs delicately between the pull of the legislation and the check of loyalty. But, beneath the noise of its divisions, a quiet hope endures, that this setback would possibly simply be the long-overdue second probability to rebuild and start once more.
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