The in Taraba State has defended what it described as the prevailing legal position of the party’s national leadership structure following the recent Supreme Court judgment on the protracted leadership crisis within the opposition party.
In a detailed legal position paper issued Wednesday by the PDP Media Situation Room and signed by the party’s State Publicity Secretary, Hon. Justice Simon Maisamari, the Taraba chapter said the clarification became necessary due to what it termed sustained misinformation and politically motivated interpretations of judicial pronouncements surrounding the party’s internal disputes.
The party maintained that the legal disputes, which culminated in a 139-page Supreme Court judgment delivered on April 30, 2026, had clearly invalidated the controversial November 2025 Ibadan National Convention conducted by a faction of the party leadership.
According to the statement, the crisis originated from disagreements preceding the proposed Ibadan convention, during which the Federal High Court restrained the party from proceeding with the gathering pending compliance with judicial directives and inclusion of qualified aspirants in the nomination process.
The Taraba PDP alleged that despite the restraining orders, some interests within the party obtained parallel judicial pronouncements from an Oyo State High Court in an attempt to validate the convention.
The statement further recalled that the leadership faction led by Ambassador Umar Damagun had, on November 1, 2025, suspended Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Barrister Kamaldeen Ajibade, Umar Bature and Okechukwu Okoha, a development it said later became central to the appellate proceedings.
The party explained that one of the key issues before the Court of Appeal was whether Ajibade, having been suspended at the time, possessed the legal competence to prosecute a cross appeal on behalf of the party.
According to the statement, the appellate court held that Ajibade lacked the legal standing to sustain the cross appeal due to his suspension, while also dismissing the substantive appeal challenging the restraining orders against the Ibadan convention, describing the proceedings as an abuse of court process.
The Taraba PDP argued that subsequent constitutional developments within the party altered the legal landscape, noting that the Interim National Working Committee was constituted on December 7, 2025 and inaugurated on December 9, 2025 after the expiration of the suspension period imposed on Anyanwu and others.
It maintained that by the time the interim structure emerged, the earlier procedural encumbrances linked to the suspensions had effectively lapsed, thereby curing any legal defects associated with the participation of the affected officials.
The statement also asserted that the March 2026 National Convention in Abuja derived its legitimacy from the Interim National Working Committee whose authority had crystallized after the expiration of the suspension period.
On the Supreme Court judgment, the Taraba PDP stated that the apex court, in a split majority decision of three to two justices, nullified the Ibadan Convention for being conducted in defiance of subsisting court orders.
It said the Supreme Court affirmed the concurrent findings of the lower courts that actions taken in disobedience to court orders could not acquire legal legitimacy.
The party accused some individuals of relying on minority opinions within the judgment to advance what it described as misleading political narratives.
“It is both legally defective and intellectually dishonest to elevate minority reasoning above the operative ratio decidendi of the apex court,” the statement said.
The PDP further contended that the Supreme Court did not expressly remove or disqualify Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the party, nor invalidate the existing leadership arrangement under Honourable Abdulrahman Mohammed.
According to the statement, no consequential order transferred the powers of the National Working Committee to the Board of Trustees or validated any alternative national structure.
The Taraba PDP also questioned the political actions of some party leaders following the judgment, citing alleged alignment discussions involving Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and the Allied Peoples Movement as evidence contradicting claims that certain factions had secured judicial validation.
The party maintained that the legal consequence of the rulings from the Federal High Court through the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court was that the Ibadan Convention and all structures deriving authority from it suffered what it described as “fatal constitutional and judicial contamination.”
It reaffirmed its support for the binding majority judgment of the Supreme Court and invited lawyers, constitutional scholars and political stakeholders with contrary opinions to present superior legal authorities capable of displacing its position.
The statement stressed that until any contrary legal authority emerged, judicial finality and constitutional order remained binding on all persons and institutions regardless of political affiliations.
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