2027 Election Surveys: Judiciary Refuses to Force INEC to Acknowledge Turaki's Faction of the PDP

The Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected a lawsuit seeking to force the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognize the Senator Adolphus Wabara-led Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, dismissing the suit on Friday.

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In a judgment delivered by Justice Salim Ibrahim, the court declined to validate actions taken by the Tanimu Turaki, SAN-led leadership of the party, as requested by the plaintiffs in the suit.

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Members of the Wabara-led Board of Trustees had filed the suit to compel INEC to update its database and acknowledge the factional interim National Working Committee of the party led by Turaki, SAN.

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The plaintiffs, who included former Senate President Wabara, former Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, and ex-Minister of Information Prof. Jerry Gana, sought an order directing INEC to publish the interim NWC on its official website.

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According to the plaintiffs, the names of members of the Turaki-led national executives were forwarded to INEC via letters dated May 4, and they urged the court to determine whether INEC was bound to give effect to various courts' judgments relating to the PDP leadership crisis.

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The plaintiffs, who also included Olabode George, Hajiya Maryam Ciroma, Hajiya Zainab Maina, and Dame Esther Uduehi, as well as the PDP itself, filed the suit on June 4 through their team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN.

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INEC was listed as the sole defendant in the matter, which was marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1159/2026, and the plaintiffs prayed the court to compel the electoral body to give effect to all official correspondence from the interim NWC of the party.

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A faction of the party aligned with Minister Nyesom Wike approached the court to challenge its jurisdiction to entertain the case, arguing that the court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to grant the prayers of the plaintiffs.

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The Wike-backed group, led by National Chairman Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed, applied to be joined as an interested party in the case, along with Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Kamardeen Ajibade, Austin Nwachukwu, Abraham Amah, and George Turner.

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All the defendants, including INEC, filed preliminary objections and counter-affidavits, praying the court to dismiss the case in its entirety and strike out the PDP's name from the suit.

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The Mohammed-led faction argued that they were the bona fide national leaders of the party, elected during a convention held from March 29 to 30, and that the plaintiffs lacked the locus standi to institute the action.

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The plaintiffs opposed the joinder applications, arguing that the applicants had been expelled from the party and that no valid convention was held in Abuja in March.

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Justice Ibrahim held that the joinder applications were meritorious, as the interests of the applicants would be affected by the outcome of the suit, and upheld the preliminary objections.

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The court struck out the suit for want of jurisdiction, holding that it amounted to an abuse of court process and that the plaintiffs were attempting to use the suit to resurrect issues already decided by various courts.

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The court also struck out the name of the PDP from the suit, stressing that the evidence established that the plaintiffs did not have the authorisation to institute the action in the name of the party.

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Justice Ibrahim further held that the suit was an invitation for the court to make an order that would undermine subsisting judgments and that it was a mere academic exercise, given that the PDP convention that produced the Alhaji Mohammed-led executives was duly monitored by INEC.

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The court took cognisance of extant judgments that nullified the convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, on November 15 and 16, which produced the Turaki-led executives, and upheld the contentions of the respondents, dismissing the suit.