The Federal High Court in Abuja has “refused to grant an interim injunction seeking to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its planned National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and national convention scheduled for October and November 2025.”
Justice J.K. Omotosho, in a ruling delivered on Thursday, declined to grant the interim orders filed by three aggrieved party members: Austine Nwachukwu (chairman of the PDP in Imo State), Amah Nnanna (chairman of the Abia State chapter), and Turnah George (secretary of the PDP South-south zone).
The plaintiffs are “believed to be allies of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Nyesom.”
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The party members had filed a motion against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP.
Through their counsel, Joseph Daudu, alongside Ogwu Onoja, M.A. Ebute, Adedayo Adedeji, and Chima Chidi, the plaintiffs had sought to compel INEC to perform its constitutional duty and “restrain INEC from monitoring or recognising any meeting or convention organised by the PDP without due notice and adherence to democratic procedures.”
They also sought to stop the party’s leadership from convening the NEC meeting scheduled for 15 October, and the national convention planned for 15 to 16 November, in Ibadan, Oyo State Capital, alleging that the party’s leadership plans to hold them “in violation of its constitution and democratic norms.”
However, Mr. Omotosho held that the defendants (INEC, the PDP, and its principal officers) “must first be served with the substantive motion on notice before any restraining order could be made.”
The judge ruled:“The Motion Ex parte for Interim Injunction is hereby refused. The Plaintiffs/Applicants are hereby ordered to serve the Defendants with the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction.”
The judge subsequently “cautioned all parties against taking any steps capable of rendering the substantive application before the court useless,” stating:“All parties in this suit upon being served with this order and the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction must not take any step, decision or do any act that will make the outcome of the reliefs in the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction nugatory.”
“Any step, decision or act taken to make the outcome of a judicial process such as the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction nugatory shall be deemed to be a nullity. It is trite law that upon being served with a court process, no party shall take any steps to make the outcome of such process nugatory,” Mr Omotosho added.
With the refusal of the interim injunction, the “PDP’s planned NEC and convention are, for now, not legally halted, though the parties have been warned to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive motion.”
The court adjourned the matter to October 14 for the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
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