Supreme Court has delivered a landmark blow to the Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, dismissing its appeal and voiding the controversial Ibadan national convention that had split the country’s main opposition party — triggering a fierce battle of reactions as the 2027 election season sharpens.
Dissent from the Minority
The ruling was not unanimous. Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Umar, in the minority judgment, held that the matter was purely an internal affair of a political party and therefore not justiciable — arguing that the suit at the Federal High Court did not challenge any action of a federal agency, but merely concerned a leadership dispute within the party.
The Turaki faction seized on the division. The group also accused the majority of raising issues suo motu without allowing parties to address the court, describing such conduct as “contrary to settled legal principles,” and argued that the ruling also upheld the suspension of key party figures including Anyanwu and Ajibade (SAN), worsening what it described as an already critical leadership vacuum.
Turaki: “Democracy Is at Risk”
In a statement issued by its spokesperson Ini Ememobong under the banner “Uncompromised PDP,” the Turaki faction offered a grim reading of the verdict’s consequences.
“With this split judgment, this effectively leaves the PDP as a party without a defined leadership,” the statement said, warning that if the situation is not urgently addressed, it could weaken not only the party but Nigeria’s entire multi-party democratic system.
The faction said the outcome had pushed the PDP toward what it called “a dangerous bend” — a phrase that captured the alarm within opposition ranks about the party’s ability to organise ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike: “Faction Does Not Exist Any Longer”
The reaction from the victorious camp could not have been more different. FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, the most prominent backer of the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led national working committee, was emphatic and dismissive of his rivals’ claims.
“The Supreme Court judgment has now made it known there is only one PDP, and we no longer hear faction,” Wike declared. “Faction does not exist any longer in the Peoples Democratic Party.”
He said the series of rulings — from the Federal High Court through the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court — had consistently validated the convention that produced the current national leadership of the PDP. “In politics, you must be ready to make sacrifices. Everything they have done has been set aside,” Wike said.
The minister also fired a warning shot at prominent figures who had abandoned the PDP for the ADC during the internal crisis. He declared that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President David Mark — who featured in Thursday’s separate ADC ruling — would not be welcomed back into the PDP, describing them as “electoral liabilities, not electoral assets.”
“ADC is neither here nor there. Whichever way you look at it, there’s no way it has given them any upper hand,” Wike said when asked to assess the implications of the ADC ruling for those who had crossed over.
A Party Facing 2027 With Deep Scars
Thursday’s dual rulings — covering both the PDP and ADC crises — have fundamentally reshaped Nigeria’s opposition landscape less than 18 months before the 2027 general elections. On March 29, the Wike-backed PDP had held its national convention in Abuja, returning Abdulrahman Mohammed as substantive National Chairman and Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary — a convention the Supreme Court has now affirmed as the party’s legitimate exercise of authority.
