Supreme Court To Hear Appeals By Turaki, Mark-led PDP, ADC Tuesday

The Supreme Court has fixed Tuesday for hearing in the appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the appeal brought by the factional national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), David Mark.

The appeals are against the recent judgments by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.

The appeals filed by the Turaki-led PDP are marked SC/CV/166/2026 (Peoples Democratic Party Vs Hon. Austine Nwachukwu) and SC/CV/164/2026 (Peoples Democratic Party Vs Alhaji Sule Lamido).

While that of David Mark is marked SC/CV/180/2026 (Senator David Mark Vs Hon. Nafiu Bala Gombe).

The two appeals by the Turaki-led PDP are against two judgments delivered on March 9, 2026, affirming two judgments of the Federal High Court in Abuja that ordered the PDP not to hold its national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025 until it complied with relevant statutory provisions including the Electoral Act and Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties (2022).

Both judgments by the Court of Appeal were delivered by Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in 2025.

The first was the judgment delivered on October 31, 2025 by Justice Omotosho in a suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2120/2025 filed by three aggrieved members of the party – Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP Chairman), Hon Amah Abraham Nnanna (Abia PDP chairman) and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South).

Defendants in the suit were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP, its National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu; the National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature; the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and its National Executive Committee (NEC).

The second was the judgment by Justice Lifu delivered on November 14, 2025, in which the PDP was ordered not to proceed with its planned convention until it afforded a former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, the opportunity to prepare and contest as a chairmanship candidate in the elective convention.

The judgment was in a suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2299/2025, by Lamido, in which he complained, among others, of being denied the opportunity to contest the party’s chairmanship position at the convention.

Mark’s appeal is against the March 12 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the ex-Senate President’s appeal in relation to the ongoing leadership dispute in the party.

Mark had appealed a September 4, 2025, ruling by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja that refused to grant some injunctive reliefs contained in an ex parte application filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a chieftain of the party.

In its judgment in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/145/2026, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, upheld the objection raised by Gombe, through his team of lawyers led by Luka Musa Haruna (SAN), that the appeal was incompetent and that it was based on issues not reflected in the ruling of the trial court.