Supreme Court Rules On ADC, PDP Leaderships Today Thursday
The Supreme Court has announced that it would, today Thursday April 30, deliver judgement on the leadership cases for Nigeria’s two leading opposition political groups, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The judgement will be coming nine days after the five-member panel of justices of the apex court reserved their verdict in the appeals surrounding the authentic leadership of the two opposition parties.
Yesterday Wednesday court records indicated that the apex court was set to deliver its verdict on the ADC and PDP appeals today.
The five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba had last Wednesday announced that judgement had been reserved to a date to be communicated to parties.
That was shortly after lawyers representing ADC and PDP in the different appeals adopted their processes as their briefs of argument for and against the appeals,
For ADC, the appeal set for judgement is between the Senator David Mark leadership and former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe.
At the last proceedings, Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, who represented Mark, urged the apex court to allow the appeal, on the grounds that the apex court had in a judgement delivered on March 21, 2025, put an end to the issue before the court, when it held that, “no court has jurisdiction to entertain cases bordering on internal affairs of political parties.”
Okutepa urged the apex court to allow the appeal and hold that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain a suit bordering on ADC’s internal matters.
However, Robert Emukpero, SAN, who represented the first respondent, Gombe, urged the apex court to reject the appeal and affirm the judgement of the lower court, which held that the case of the appellant was premature and dismissed it.
After taking arguments from all parties, Justice Mohammed Garba, who presided over the proceedings, announced that judgement was reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties.
Yet, the appellate court had in a ruling in the appeal filed by the Mark-led leadership against the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered status quo ante bellum.
Based on the ruling of the appellate court, INEC withdrew the recognition accorded the Mark-led executive as the authentic leadership of ADC.
Gombe had last year dragged the Mark-led executive before Justice Emeka Nwite to challenge the leadership of the party.
He had among others sought an order restraining the Mark-led leadership from parading itself as leaders of ADC, and claimed that he remained the authentic leader of the party, following the resignation of the then chairman and other members of the executive.
Mark, it would be recalled, was announced the chairman of an interim national executive of ADC at a meeting in Abuja, last year, with his chairmanship substantiated at the convention of the party held recently in Abuja.
However, Nwite declined to issue a restraining order against the Mark-led leadership but rather ordered the applicant to put the defendants on notice.
Reacting, Mark approached the appellate court to challenge the jurisdiction of Nwite to entertain the suit by Gombe, in the first place.
Only a few days ago, ADC pleaded with the Supreme Court to deliver its judgement in the appeal within the next three days in a letter to Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
In PDP, the battle is between a faction said to be loyal to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, an ally of President Bola Tinubu, and the camp of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde.
The legal battle stemmed from the conduct of the PDP National Convention in Ibadan last year, which produced the Turaki-led national executive.
While Austin Nwachukwu and two other PDP chieftains had dragged the Ambassador Iliya Damagum-led national executive before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, over alleged non-compliance with the party’s guidelines as well as the Electoral Act in the conduct of the PDP convention, former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, on the other hand, dragged the party before Justice Peter Lifu of the same Federal High Court, to challenge his exclusion from the convention.
At last Wednesday’s proceedings, when the appeal between the Turaki-led executive of PDP versus Lamido was called, Paul Erokoro, SAN, who represented the appellant urged the apex court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the Ibadan convention on the grounds that the convention was held in disobedience to the orders of the Federal High Court.
Lamido, through his lawyer, Ewere Aliemeke, urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal in its entirety for lack of merit.
The same plea was made by O. A. Adeyemi, who represented INEC and Chief Joseph Daudu, SAN, who represented the third to fifth respondents.
In the other PDP matter against Nwachukwu and two others, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, who argued the appeal for PDP, submitted that the two lower courts granted orders against the party’s convention without jurisdiction.
He accordingly urged the apex court to set aside the two judgements and hold that the lower courts erred in assuming jurisdiction in the internal matters of PDP.
After taking arguments from all parties, Justice Mohammed Garba, who presided over the proceedings, subsequently announced that judgement was reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties.
