Supreme Court to Hear PDP, ADC Leadership Disputes Tuesday
Nigeria’s Supreme Court has scheduled Tuesday to hear three separate appeals stemming from internal leadership disputes within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Two of the appeals were lodged by a PDP faction aligned with Kabiru Turaki, while the third was filed by former Senate President David Mark, who is also laying claim to the ADC national chairmanship.
The cases challenge recent rulings delivered by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
Court filings show that the PDP faction’s cases—SC/CV/166/2026 and SC/CV/164/2026—arose from appellate decisions affirming earlier Federal High Court orders that halted the party’s proposed national convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2025.
The lower courts had directed the party to first comply with provisions of the Electoral Act and the 2022 Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties before proceeding.
The Federal High Court decisions followed suits initiated by aggrieved PDP members, including Austine Nwachukwu and Sule Lamido, among others. In one ruling delivered in late October 2025, the court upheld claims by party officials challenging the process leading to the convention. In another judgment issued in November, the court ordered the PDP to suspend its convention plans until Lamido was allowed to contest for the party’s national chairmanship, after he alleged exclusion from the race.
Separately, Mark’s appeal—SC/CV/180/2026—targets a Court of Appeal decision that dismissed his earlier challenge in the ADC leadership dispute. The appellate court had upheld a preliminary objection raised by legal representatives of Nafiu Bala Gombe, ruling that Mark’s case was incompetent because it introduced issues not addressed in the initial Federal High Court proceedings.
That earlier ruling, delivered in September 2025 by the Federal High Court, had declined to grant interim reliefs sought in an ex parte application filed by Gombe.
With the appeals now before it, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver a conclusive determination on the protracted leadership crises affecting both parties.
