The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court restraining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from proceeding with its November 15 and 16 national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, without allowing former Sule Lamido to participate as a chairmanship aspirant.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the appellate court upheld the November 14 ruling delivered by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which directed the party to provide Lamido the opportunity to contest for the PDP national chairmanship.
The appellate court held that the PDP’s decision to go ahead with the convention despite the subsisting order of the Federal High Court amounted to contempt and a clear disregard for the authority of the court.
According to the panel, it was undisputed that the party held 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 held the convention in compliance with the judgment of another court of coordinate jurisdiction. It stressed that no party has the right to choose which court order to obey or ignore.
The appellate court further noted that the appropriate step for the party would have been to seek a stay of execution of the judgment or file an appeal against the ruling.
It consequently ruled that the trial court was right to assume jurisdiction over Lamido’s suit and grant the relief he sought.
The court therefore dismissed the appeal, marked CA/ABJ/1695/2025, for lacking merit and awarded N2 million in costs against the PDP.
