Court Halts PDP 2025 Convention Again Bars INEC From Recognizing Outcome

A Federal High Court in Abuja has again stopped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its 2025 National Convention scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Justice Peter Odo Lifu, in a ruling on Tuesday, also barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from supervising, monitoring, or recognizing the outcome of the convention where national officers were to be elected.

The order followed a suit filed by former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, a founding member of the PDP, who told the court that he was denied the opportunity to purchase the chairmanship nomination form.

Justice Lifu held that the PDP failed to comply with relevant legal requirements for organizing such a convention, noting that the party did not properly publish its timetable as mandated by law. He ruled that Lamido would suffer greater harm if unlawfully excluded, and that the balance of convenience favoured him.

The judge further stated that Lamido had undertaken to compensate the party if his case was later found to be frivolous.

“In a constitutional democracy, due process must be strictly followed by those in charge,” Lifu said, warning that failure to obey the law could endanger democracy itself.

He added that courts must not abdicate their duty of ensuring justice, stressing that “anarchy would prevail anywhere the court of record fails to perform its constitutional role.”

In his final ruling, Justice Lifu restrained the PDP from proceeding with the convention in Ibadan or any other location and ordered INEC not to recognize any outcome from such gathering.

This is the second time in less than two weeks that the court has issued such an order. On October 31, Justice James Omotosho of the same court had stopped INEC from recognizing any PDP convention outcome, citing the party’s failure to give the mandatory 21-day notice to the commission.

Omotosho said the PDP’s disregard for due process had placed the planned convention in jeopardy and advised the party to correct the lapses before conducting the election.