PDP CRISIS: WIKE CAMP SUES TO NULLIFY IBADAN CONVENTION

BY JENN NOMAMIUKOR
The fight for control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got hotter on Tuesday. Supporters of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, went to the Federal High Court in Abuja to try and cancel the party‘s national convention that took place in Ibadan from November 15 to 16.
The faction wants the court to declare the convention invalid and to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising any officers or decisions that emerged from it.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2501/2025, the plaintiffs, the PDP (as listed in the filing), acting national chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, argue that the convention was held in disregard of what they describe as existing court judgements that should have guided the party’s actions.
They insist that three Federal High Court rulings were sidestepped in the lead-up to the event: the October 31 judgement in Austine Nwachukwu v INEC; the interim and final rulings of November 11 and 14 in Sule Lamido v PDP; and the May 31, 2023, decision in Nyesom Wike v PDP.
Despite this, the suit claims, the fifth to twenty-fifth defendants moved ahead with the Ibadan convention, producing new national officers and announcing suspensions and expulsions that mostly affected Wike-aligned members.
The filing also touches on tensions at the PDP national secretariat. In an affidavit, Anyanwu says a rival camp attempted on November 18 to ‘forcibly take control’ of Wadata Plaza and Legacy House.
He further alleges that instead of enforcing earlier court orders, security agencies shut the buildings and blocked him and the acting chairman from accessing their offices.
“The 2nd to 4th defendants have now sealed up the premises of the 1st plaintiff and denied the 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs access to their offices,” the affidavit stated.
The case has not been given to a judge yet.
