The Federal High Court in Abuja has halted the planned national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pending the resolution of a suit filed by former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa. Justice Peter Lifu, in his ruling, also prohibited the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from supervising or acknowledging the convention’s outcome. He deemed Lamido’s application meritorious, stating that allowing the convention to proceed would unfairly disadvantage the former governor.
PDP had scheduled its convention for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, Oyo State. Lamido, represented by lawyer Jeph Njikonye, argued that proceeding with the convention would violate the party’s constitution and impede his bid for the chairman position. Initially, the court had declined to grant a similar motion on October 31, but subsequent developments led to today’s ruling.
The defendants, PDP and INEC, were given 72 hours to respond to the initial application on October 31. A hearing was then held on November 6, where both parties submitted affidavits against Lamido’s request. Today’s ruling included a timeframe for the hearing of the substantive matter.
