The Supreme Court has scheduled April 22, 2026, to hear two appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The appeals challenge the Court of Appeal's decision invalidating the PDP's Ibadan National Convention held on November 15-16, 2025. A five-member panel, led by Justice Lawal Garba, granted the Turaki group's request for an accelerated hearing and shortened timelines for filing briefs.
In the first appeal, the Turaki faction is contesting against the PDP group aligned with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. The court ordered service of hearing notices on Mohammed Abdulrahman, the seventh respondent, who was absent during the proceedings. Chris Uche, counsel for Turaki's group, cited the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) timetable for the 2027 general elections as grounds for urgency and submitted an affidavit of extreme urgency.
Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), representing Austin Nwachukwu and two others, asked for 15 days to file a reply, citing the need to obtain records from the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court directed all nine respondents to file replies within five days each.
The second appeal involves the Turaki-led group versus former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and others. Lamido had gone to court to challenge his exclusion from the national chairmanship race, leading Federal High Court Judge Peter Lifu to halt the convention. Lower courts have consistently ruled against the Turaki faction, nullifying the convention, barring INEC from recognising its outcomes, and restricting access to the party's national secretariat. The Turaki group argues the matter concerns internal party affairs, which it claims are not subject to judicial intervention, and that due process was observed.
The Turaki-led PDP faction's push for a Supreme Court verdict by April 2026 exposes the extent to which legal timelines are being manipulated to influence political outcomes, with Justice Lawal Garba's panel accommodating compressed procedures that mirror election deadlines rather than judicial norms.
This case is less about procedural breaches than about control of a weakened party's machinery ahead of 2027, with Turaki's group invoking "internal party affairs" only after successive court losses. The irony is stark: the same leaders who once welcomed judicial intervention in party crises now claim courts should stay out, revealing a selective respect for institutional processes.
For ordinary PDP members and voters, the protracted legal battle deepens uncertainty about the party's credibility and readiness for elections. As national officers remain in legal limbo, grassroots activists and aspirants are left without a functioning structure to mobilise or contest under.
This pattern of dragging party disputes through overlapping court rulings until election timelines force resolutions has become a standard playbook in Nigerian politics, turning justice into a tactical tool rather than a path to clarity.
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