BREAKING: Without Supreme Court Expediting Hearing PDP Can’t Progress — Maduabuchi

Oba Maduabuchi is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In this interview, he speaks on the lingering legal tussles within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Electoral Act 2026, why the Supreme Court should expedite action on the hearing, among others. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts:

What’s the future of the PDP; is there any prospect that with all the litigation that the party will be able to take part in the forthcoming elections?

For us to appreciate how bad things have gotten, we have to go back to the beginning. Undoubtedly, Iyorchia Ayu was the national chairman of the PDP. He was removed and Umar Damagun stepped into his shoes. Damagun was having his problems, but whatever it is, he lasted up to December 8, 2025, when his tenure ended. And that was where we started having problems. There’s Mohammed Abdurahman who suddenly became chairman or acting national chairman or chairman of the caretaker committee. I don’t know how he came up, but he came up and the Damagun National Working Committee (NWC) informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that they were going to hold a meeting with respect to having their convention and INEC accepted.

They were given 21 days. The meeting held and at the meeting, certain people were dismissed, while others were expelled from the party, but most of them are now national officers. That’s where the conundrum comes in. The Court of Appeal said, these people were validly expelled from the party. The same people were elected as members of the NWC of the same party from which they had been expelled.

But the situation is still confusing despite what you’ve explained…

Damagum didn’t plan the convention, so who informed INEC that the convention was going to take place? Where did they derive their authority from? We go back to the judgments. Justice Omotosho said don’t hold a convention. The last time, I said it publicly, that there’s no way that convention could have been held, given that Justice Omotosho had already said, don’t hold it. If that convention didn’t hold, it means that the NWC of Damagun is still in place. But I’m hearing that Justice Omotosho equally said, you have to recognise Mohammed Abdulrahman. I don’t know where that one came from. So, the problem now is between the judgement of the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal said, Sam Anyanwu and Kamaldeen and others were validly expelled.

And then the same Court of Appeal says, you have to recognise Abdulrahman who is part of the expelled members of the PDP. We only have to wait for the Supreme Court to clear all this, because it’s just not possible. You can’t speak from two sides of your mouth.

They were validly expelled by the NWC and those who were expelled validly held a convention.

I want to ask you about the validity of INEC’s presence there at the convention because if you look at the March 9, Court of Appeal ruling, it restrained INEC from recognising the 2025 convention. Is it not the same premise that has birthed this new convention, and if that’s the case, why was INEC there and what prevented them from attending the one in Ibadan by another faction of the PDP?

Let me give you a two-pronged answer. In the first place, the presence or absence of INEC doesn’t invalidate or affect a convention. The word used is may; that is optional. Whether they came or didn’t come doesn’t mean that it is invalid. It simply adds a vibe to whatever took place. Now, with respect to the November 13 and 16, 2025 convention, there was a restraining order by Justice Omotosho and I think by Justice Peter Lifu that the convention shouldn’t hold. It was a direct positive order. And as lawyers we know that even if it’s an area court that said, don’t do it, you must obey. So when they held that convention, I knew that any judicial proceeding will set it aside. It’s like what is happening now. You are aware that this matter is pending in the Supreme Court and you want to force on the Supreme Court a position of utter helplessness. What do you want us to do? You proceed in defiance of the presence of this matter in the Supreme Court, the summit court of the land.

If it was in the days of Kayode Eso and Chukwudifu Oputa, I’m sure by now you would have heard an order from the Supreme Court, cancelling everything they did because you can’t defy the Supreme Court.

If they were not aware, it would be different. But they are aware. And somebody said there is no positive order. You don’t wait for a positive order. Once you are aware that your issue is before a court of law, you must abide by the result of that proceeding. So you remember that I said I didn’t think it was necessary for Kabiru Turaki to go to the Supreme Court.

That was because I was only aware that they sanctioned the expulsion of Sam Anyanwu and others. But when I now became aware that they also said they recognised Mohamed Abdulrahman, I said no, we needed to go and clarify this thing because you cannot in one side of your mouth say this man was validly expelled by the NWC and then recognise the same group of people as the authentic NWC of the same party. So, we need the Supreme Court to clear it for us. Without the Supreme Court, I don’t see how PDP can progress. And don’t forget, the whole thing is even muddled further. In Ekiti, they say PDP has a candidate but the question is: Which of the PDP? In Abuja, they said the PDP won the election in Gwagwalada. Which of the PDP fielded the candidate? So, the Supreme Court needs to give this case an accelerated hearing.

What if in a scenario where the Supreme Court doesn’t give a judgement on time; would you see that as injustice because before you know it, parties will be going for their primaries and it looks as if the Wike faction holds the ace. Also, how do you reconcile with a Wike-led faction that has openly said it’s going to be behind President Tinubu?

That’s why I said the Supreme Court should give this matter expedited hearing because this is what holds the PDP. And whatever anybody says, PDP is in the DNA of many Nigerians. I believe that the actual opposition party in Nigeria is the PDP. I strongly believe that without opposition, the ruling party will ride roughshod over everybody. It’s not in the best interest of Nigerians that we don’t have a good and vibrant opposition. Between Turaki and Abdulrahman, who emerged from the recognised NWC of Damagun because once the Supreme Court decides that, every other thing becomes academic. And I’m only urging the Supreme Court to do that.

One of the major areas of contention in the Electoral Act 2026 is section 84 (2.) Opposition parties are saying that they have an issue with this because it imposes direct primaries and consensus, which they say, make it difficult to have participatory democracy. Do you think this is good for democracy?

It’s wrong. That’s a section of the law that ought to be challenged because it goes against the grain of everything the Supreme Court has told us. Internal affairs of a political party is determined by a political party, not the National Assembly. If the political party says, we want to pick our candidates through various town unions, that is their business. That’s what works for them. You cannot say you must do either consensus or not. What you are supposed to do is to say, produce your candidates in a manner contained in your constitution. That’s all. But you cannot come and tell them that they must do consensus or direct primaries.