2027 Election Outlook: Supreme Court Set to Decide Fate of PDP and ADC Today

The Supreme Court is set to deliver verdicts on four appeals that will significantly impact the fate of the Peoples Democratic Party and the African Democratic Congress ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the apex court indicating that it will deliver judgments in notices sent out yesterday.

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The appeals involve leadership crises in the two opposition parties, with the PDP appeals seeking validation of the outcome of the national convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, on November 15 and 16, 2025, and the ADC appeal challenging the interference of courts in alleged domestic affairs of the party.

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An Abuja Federal High Court has barred the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising the recent congresses conducted by the Mark-led National Executive Committee, a decision that has elicited mixed views in the polity, with the 2023 presidential candidate of the ADC, Mr Dumebi Kachikwu, hailing the decision and Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the Mark’s team, stating that they would study the ruling and take appropriate action.

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A five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, had on April 22 reserved judgment on the cases after all the parties involved adopted their respective briefs of argument, with one of the appeals marked SC/CV/164/2026, filed by the Tanimu Turaki-led factional national executives of the PDP, seeking the setting aside of judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court in Abuja.

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The appellate court had berated the Turaki-led PDP for defying the November 14, 2025, judgment of Justice Peter Lifu of the high court, which stopped the Ibadan convention, and the high court had specifically barred INEC from supervising, monitoring or recognising any convention held without including former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, as a contestant.

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The trial court found that Lamido had been unjustly denied a nomination form, contrary to the PDP Constitution and guidelines, and held that the party must create opportunities for members to aspire to positions, with the court directing the party to conduct proper meetings and congresses with 21 days’ statutory notice to INEC for monitoring.

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The second appeal, also filed by the Turaki-led group, is seeking to void the court order that barred INEC from monitoring the contentious Ibadan convention, with the appellants challenging the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld judgments barring the PDP from proceeding with the Ibadan convention.

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In the case of the ADC, the apex court will deliver judgment in an appeal marked SC/CV/180/2026, filed by Senator David Mark, who seeks to set aside a March 12 Court of Appeal judgment, which he said was against the interest of justice, arguing that the appellate court exceeded its jurisdiction by ordering maintenance of the status quo ante bellum in a suit filed by aggrieved party members led by Nafiu-Bala Gombe.

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Mark contended that the dispute involved a political party’s domestic affairs, in which courts lacked jurisdiction to intervene, and sought, among other reliefs, an order restraining INEC from recognising anyone other than him and the current national officers, pending determination of the appeal.

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A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has barred INEC from recognising or participating in any congress organised by committees appointed by the Senator Mark-led caretaker leadership of the ADC, with the court also restraining the Mark-led group from interfering with the tenure and functions of elected state executives of the party.

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The court held that the responsibility for conducting state congresses rests with state executive committees and not the national leadership of a political party, and that the four-year tenure of the ADC’s State Working Committees and State Executive Committees remained valid and subsisting, pending the conduct of properly constituted congresses and the convocation of a national convention.

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Reacting to the verdict, Kachikwu told journalists in Abuja that the decision of the court has vindicated his long-standing warning that some individuals were bent on hijacking the party for selfish interests, stating that the ADC is not for sale and that those who tried to hijack the party have been shown the way out through the same back door they came in.

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The Mark-led ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said its attention had been drawn to the reports and outlined its immediate response, stating that the party had noted media reports suggesting that the Federal High Court has sacked the party’s duly elected, but yet-to-be inaugurated, state chairmen.