The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court restraining the Peoples Democratic Party from proceeding with its November 15 and 16 national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, without allowing a former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, to participate as a chairmanship aspirant.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the appellate court upheld the November 14 judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which directed the party to provide Lamido the opportunity to contest in the race for the party’s national chairmanship.
The appellate court held that the PDP’s decision to proceed with the convention despite the subsisting order of the Federal High Court was contemptuous and amounted to a disregard for the authority of the court.
According to the panel, it was not in dispute that the party went ahead to conduct the convention in defiance of the court order directing it to allow Lamido to participate in the exercise.
The court rejected the PDP’s argument that it conducted the convention in compliance with the judgment of another court of coordinate jurisdiction.
It held that it was not for any party in a case to determine which court order to obey or disregard.
The court noted that the proper step open to the PDP was to seek a stay of execution of the judgment or file an appeal against the decision.
It consequently held that the trial court was right to assume jurisdiction over Lamido’s suit and grant the relief he sought.
The appellate court therefore dismissed the appeal, marked CA/ABJ/1695/2025, for lacking merit and awarded N2m in costs against the PDP.
Details later…
