PDP Convention: Court Adjourns Ruling On Jurisdiction Objection To December 8
•By KAZEEM OYENIYI
IBADAN – THE Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has adjourned till December 8, 2025, its ruling on a preliminary objection challenging its jurisdiction to hear a suit seeking to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from conducting its national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025.
The suit was filed by a party member, Mr. Folahan Adelabi.
At Friday’s proceedings, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), O. Adeyemi, urged the court to strike out the case, arguing that as a Federal Government agency, INEC can only be sued at the Federal High Court.
He insisted that the Oyo State High Court lacked the legal competence to entertain the matter.
But counsel to the claimant, Musibau Adetumbi, SAN, opposed the objection. He argued that the claimant’s fundamental rights—including the constitutional right to lawful assembly—were at stake. He submitted that Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution did not place INEC within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in matters of this nature.
Adetumbi urged the court to dismiss the objection and proceed with the substantive suit.
After listening to both parties, Justice Ladiran Akintola adjourned the ruling on the preliminary objection to December 8.
He, however, reaffirmed that the interim order earlier granted restraining the defendants from disrupting preparations for the PDP national convention remained valid and subsisting.
The defendants in the suit include the PDP, its acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, and the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, who chairs the party’s Convention Organising Committee. INEC is listed as the fourth defendant.
The adjournment in Ibadan came on the same day Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, issued a final order halting the PDP from holding the planned convention. Justice Lifu gave the ruling in a suit filed by former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido.
In his judgment, the Abuja judge barred the party from proceeding with the convention until it complies fully with its constitution and internal guidelines. He also ruled that the process must be suspended until Lamido is allowed to purchase a nomination form to contest for the office of national chairman.
The conflicting court orders have further heightened the crisis rocking the PDP, already burdened by leadership tussles, suspensions and counter-suspensions among its top members.