The supreme court will hear the appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on April 22.
The Turaki faction is challenging the nullification of the Ibadan national convention.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Mohammed Garba, granted expedited hearing of the appeals in a ruling on Tuesday.
The appellants — PDP, its national working committee (NWC), and national executive committee (NEC) — had, in a motion filed on April 8 through their team of lawyers led by Chris Uche, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), prayed for a departure from the supreme court rules and the abridgement of time for all respondents to file their briefs of argument.
While moving the application on Tuesday, Uche submitted that the circumstances warranted expeditious determination “in the interest of justice”.
He noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), also a respondent, had announced April 23 as the commencement date for candidate submissions by political parties.
Uche added that his clients had filed an affidavit of extreme urgency to justify swift determination of the case.
Who represented the PDP faction loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), did not oppose the application but requested 15 days to respond to the appeal.
INEC’s counsel also requested 10 days to file their briefs of argument.
Ruling on the application, the apex court granted accelerated hearing of the appeals and the abridgement of time.
The court ordered the respondents to file their briefs within five days and for the appellants to file a reply brief within two days if any.
The supreme court stipulated that filing and exchange of processes must be completed before April 21 and fixed April 22 for the substantive appeal.
BACKGROUND
In October 2025, the federal high court in Abuja stopped the PDP faction led by Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo; and Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi; from going ahead with its national convention slated for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan.
James Omotosho, the presiding judge, ruled that the evidence before the court showed that the party failed to hold valid state congresses before the planned convention as stipulated in the 1999 constitution and INEC guidelines, as well as its own constitution.
Lamido had sued the party for allegedly denying him the opportunity to purchase the chairmanship nomination form to enable him participate in the convention.
On November 11, Peter Lifu, another federal high court judge, issued a temporary order restraining the party from proceeding with the planned convention pending the determination of a substantive suit filed by Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state.
On November 14, he made a final order restraining the PDP from conducting its national convention.
In his judgment, Lifu held that the evidence before the court established that Lamido was “unjustly denied” the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest the position of national chairman of the party, in violation of the PDP constitution and its internal regulations.
Consequently, the judge directed that the planned convention be put on hold to allow Lamido to obtain the nomination form, mobilise supporters, and conduct his campaign.
Despite the judgments, the NWC of the PDP faction went ahead with the national convention in Ibadan.
The Ibadan convention produced Turaki as national chairman of the faction and other members of the NWC.
However, the faction loyal to the FCT minister did not participate in the convention but rather constituted a parallel NWC, board of trustees (BoT) and national executive committee (NEC).
On March 9, the court of appeal in Abuja affirmed the different judgments of the federal high court, which restrained the conduct of the Ibadan convention.
The three-member panel of the appellate court dismissed the PDP NWC appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the federal high court to entertain the suit.
Meanwhile, the Wike-aligned faction has conducted a national convention in Abuja, producing its factional leadership.
The group also secured a high court judgment that granted it access to the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.
