By Vincent Egunyanga and Ben Adoga, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday emerged politically reinforced as the Supreme Court delivered a sweeping judgment that nullified the Peoples Democratic Party’s controversial November 2025 Ibadan National Convention, effectively crushing the rival Kabiru Turaki-led leadership and handing judicial supremacy to the Wike-backed bloc.
The apex court, in a ruling that reverberated across opposition political landscape, held that the Ibadan convention was held in clear disobedience of subsisting court orders and constituted an abuse of court process.
The judgment invalidated the convention that produced Turaki and his executives, bringing months of bitter internal division in the PDP to a dramatic climax.
Speaking triumphantly at his Abuja residence shortly after the verdict, Wike said the judgment had permanently buried factional politics in the PDP.
“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 People’s Democratic Party.”
Wike, who has remained the central force behind the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led structure, said the verdict had finally resolved the leadership crisis and reaffirmed the authority of his political camp.
For months, the battle for control of the PDP had pitted Wike and his loyalists against powerful figures, including Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, and allies of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Thursday’s ruling significantly weakened that opposing bloc.
Wike openly mocked the political future of his rivals.
“I don’t know where they are going to pitch their tent,” he said, in apparent reference to Makinde, Bala Mohammed, and the Turaki camp.
He also ruled out the reintegration of Atiku-aligned political actors from the African Democratic Congress into the PDP.
According to him, such individuals would constitute a burden rather than an electoral strength.
“They are liabilities, not assets,” Wike said.
The minister further insisted that the March 29, 2026, Abuja convention supported by his faction remained the valid path for the party’s reorganisation, despite subsequent constitutional questions raised by the PDP Board of Trustees.
Wike’s declaration instantly positioned him as the strongest power broker within the PDP, particularly as the party begins preparations for the 2027 general elections.
*Wabara invokes BoT powers, assumes PDP leadership
In a dramatic constitutional response, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, announced that the BoT had immediately assumed national leadership of the party.
In a statement issued hours after the judgment, Wabara said the invalidation of the Ibadan convention, combined with the suspension of key national officers, had created a leadership vacuum that only the BoT could constitutionally fill.
“It is with the utmost sense of duty and responsibility that the Board of Trustees assumes leadership of our great party today,” Wabara said.
“This constitutional intervention is so as not to allow any leadership vacuum at the national level.”
Wabara argued that both the Turaki-led structure and the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led arrangement had become invalid.
“Today’s judgment implies that all actions taken… including the appointment of Abdulrahman Mohammed as Acting National Chairman, the composition of the National Caretaker Working Committee and the conduct and outcome of the March 29, 2026 Convention in Abuja are illegal, null and ab initio void,” he said.
He directed PDP staff nationwide to now operate under BoT supervision pending the constitution of an interim National Working Committee.
“The PDP has suffered enough,” Wabara stated.
“The time has therefore come for us to make sacrifices, sheathe our swords and embrace genuine reconciliation.”
*ADC: Supreme Court restores Mark’s political footing
In the separate but equally significant ADC ruling, the Supreme Court set aside the Court of Appeal’s controversial order mandating maintenance of status quo ante bellum in the ADC leadership crisis.
The order had previously provided the legal basis for the Independent National Electoral Commission to derecognise the David Mark-led leadership.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Garba ruled that preservative orders are temporary legal instruments that cannot subsist after proceedings have been concluded.
“Once proceedings have been fully, faithfully, conclusively and finally concluded, there is nothing left for that court to preserve,” Justice Garba held.
The apex court faulted the lower appellate court for sustaining the order after interlocutory proceedings had ended, declaring that the directive lacked a continuing legal foundation.
The Supreme Court also stressed that litigants cannot violate legal procedures and simultaneously seek equitable relief.
It held that where the grounds of appeal are not purely legal, obtaining leave of the court is a mandatory condition precedent.
By setting aside the status quo order, the apex court effectively restored Mark’s operational authority pending final determination of the substantive suit.
The court subsequently directed all factions to return to the Federal High Court for expeditious hearing of the leadership dispute brought by aggrieved party members.
The ruling is expected to reopen the contest over the party’s authentic leadership but immediately strengthens Mark’s control over ADC’s national structure.
Thursday’s judgments delivered decisive consequences across opposition space.
In the PDP, Wike’s camp secured the clearest judicial endorsement yet in the long-running struggle for party supremacy.
At the same time, Wabara’s intervention signalled that constitutional battles within the party may continue.
In the ADC, David Mark regained strategic institutional advantage, even as the final struggle over the party’s structure shifted back to the Federal High Court.
Together, the rulings underscored the Supreme Court’s firm stance against political actors who disregard the judicial process while seeking legitimacy from the same courts.
