The Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday fixed October 31 for judgment in a suit seeking to stop the 2025 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on grounds of violations of the party’s rules. Justice James Omotosho fixed the date after taking arguments for and against the suit filed by three aggrieved members of the party.

Plaintiffs in the case are Hon Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP Chairman), Hon Amah Abraham Nnanna (Abia PDP Chairman) and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South).

The suit seeks to stop the planned November 15 and 16, 2025 National Convention of the party scheduled for Ibadan in Oyo State where new National Officers are expected to be elected on the grounds of breach of the party’s Constitution. Joined as defendants are: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); PDP; Samuel Anyanwu (National Secretary); Umar Baturrle (National Organising Secretary); the NWC and NEC of the party, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, Ali Odefa and Emmanuel Ogidi.

At yesterday’s proceedings, Justice Omotosho still reaffirmed that his order on maintaining status quo in respect of the convention must not be flouted by any of the parties involved in the suit. The judge maintained that he would not hesitate to nullify any step taken by any of the parties during the pendency of the case.

During the proceedings, Joseph Daudu (SAN), who represented the three aggrieved members, urged the court not to treat the complaints of the plaintiffs as internal affairs of the party but a step to enforce adherence to the 1999 Constitution, Electoral Act 2022 and the PDP Constitution. The senior lawyer argued that Nigeria’s constitution makes it mandatory for INEC to monitor congresses of political parties before they can be valid.

He said that the complaints of the three aggrieved members was that no valid congresses were conducted in 14 states before the PDP NWC and NEC issued notice for next month’s convention.

However, the acting National Chairman of the party, Ambassador Damagum, represented by Paul Erokoro (SAN) asked the judge to decline jurisdiction on the ground that issues of convention and congresses are internal affairs of the party. His position was aligned with that of Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who stood for the National Working Committee NWC and the National Executive Committee NEC to the effect that courts cannot inquire into the internal affairs of the party.