Supreme Court fixes April 22 for hearing of PDP leadership dispute<\/p>\n
By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
In a bid restore peace in the crisis thorn Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),the Supreme Court of Nigeria, has scheduled April 22, 2026, for the hearing of a high-stakes appeal arising from the protracted leadership tussle within the Party.<\/p>\n
The development follows proceedings on Tuesday when the appeal, filed by a faction of the party led by former Minister Kabiru Turaki, was mentioned for the first time before the court.<\/p>\n
Lead counsel to the appellants, Chris Uche (SAN), urged the court to abridge the time stipulated under its rules for filing legal processes. <\/p>\n
He also requested an accelerated hearing, citing the urgency of resolving the dispute to avoid further instability within the party.<\/p>\n
The appeal challenges a judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had earlier upheld the decision of Justice Omotosho.<\/p>\n
Responding, counsel to the 1st to 3rd respondents, E.C. Ukala (SAN), did not oppose the request for expedited proceedings but sought 15 days to file their brief. <\/p>\n
Similarly, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kingsley Magbim, raised no objection but requested 10 days to respond.<\/p>\n
Other parties in the matter also aligned with the position of non-opposition.<\/p>\n
In its ruling, the Supreme Court granted the appellants\u2019 application, significantly shortening the timeline. <\/p>\n
The court ordered that all respondents must file their briefs within five days, while the appellants were given two days to submit any reply.<\/p>\n
It directed that all processes be filed on or before April 21, ahead of the substantive hearing the following day.<\/p>\n
In a related appeal involving former Governor ofJigawa State, Sule Lamido, the apex court similarly approved a request for accelerated hearing.<\/p>\n
The case stems from an appeal against a ruling of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the judgment of Justice Lifu.<\/p>\n
Counsel to the appellants, Paul Erokoro (SAN), made a similar application for abridgment of time, which was not opposed by any of the respondents.<\/p>\n
The court consequently ordered the same compressed timelines\u2014five days for respondents\u2019 briefs and two days for replies\u2014and fixed April 22, 2026, for hearing.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the developments, the PDP, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong Essien, called on members to remain steadfast and hopeful.<\/p>\n
The party urged its supporters to continue to uphold democratic values and expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would deliver judgments that strengthen Nigeria\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n
It also reiterated its belief in the judiciary as a critical institution capable of safeguarding democratic governance, particularly at a time of heightened political tension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Supreme Court fixes April 22 for hearing of PDP leadership dispute By Our Correspondent In a bid restore peace in the crisis thorn Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),the Supreme Court of Nigeria, has scheduled April 22, 2026, for the hearing of a high-stakes appeal arising from the protracted leadership tussle within the Party. The development follows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[672,3600,86],"class_list":["post-12740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime","tag-leadership","tag-protracted","tag-tussle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12742,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions\/12742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}