The leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a fresh turn as prominent party elders led by former Senate President Adolphus Wabara filed a suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seeking judicial intervention to compel the electoral body to recognise the party’s interim National Working Committee (NWC).
The suit, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, was instituted by the Wabara-led Board of Trustees (BoT) alongside the PDP. Other plaintiffs include former Niger State Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, former Information Minister Jerry Gana, PDP chieftain Bode George, former Women Affairs Ministers Maryam Ciroma and Zainab Maina, and BoT member Esther Uduehi.
In the originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1159/2026, the plaintiffs asked the court to order INEC to update its records and publish on its official website the composition of the interim NWC headed by former Minister of Special Duties Tanimu Turaki.
They argued that the party’s BoT and National Executive Committee (NEC) had formally communicated the composition of the interim leadership to INEC through letters dated May 4, but the commission had failed to acknowledge or recognise the committee.
The legal action comes barely days after the Court of Appeal in Abuja overturned key aspects of a Federal High Court judgment delivered in Ibadan that had recognised a rival PDP caretaker committee linked to the camp of former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on June 3, the appellate court held that the lower court granted reliefs that were never sought by the parties before it, faulting the trial judge for exceeding the issues submitted for determination.
The plaintiffs contend that INEC is constitutionally bound to comply with several subsisting judgments of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, which they say collectively invalidated the PDP’s November 2025 national convention and upheld the suspension of key party officials, including former National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu.
According to an affidavit deposed to by Aliyu, the affected officials were suspended by the party’s NWC on November 1, 2025, over allegations of gross misconduct, anti-party activities, and insubordination. He said subsequent court decisions affirmed those disciplinary actions and nullified the national convention that produced the party’s current leadership structure.
Aliyu stated that following the judicial nullification of the convention and the leadership vacuum it created, the PDP BoT constituted an interim NWC to oversee party affairs pending the conduct of a valid national convention.
He alleged that despite repeated notifications and legal correspondence, INEC had refused to update its records to reflect the interim leadership.
The plaintiffs described the commission’s stance as a violation of the rule of law and asked the court to direct INEC to recognise and engage exclusively with the interim NWC on all official matters concerning the PDP.
The case had yet to be assigned to a judge as of the time of filing this report.