JUST IN: Appeal Court voids PDP factional caretaker committee’s recognition

By Osaro Michael, Benin

The Abuja Court of Appeal has overturned key parts of a Federal High Court ruling that recognised a splinter caretaker committee in the Peoples Democratic Party. The appellate court ruled that the trial court awarded orders that were not requested by any party in the case.

In the judgment read by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam on Wednesday, and a certified true copy obtained on Friday, the court criticised Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court in Ibadan for ruling beyond the matters presented in the PDP leadership dispute.

On January 30, Justice Agomoh had declared the caretaker committee headed by Abdurahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu as the authentic leadership faction of the PDP. The Court of Appeal, however, said no party in the lower court had asked for that declaration.

Justice Onyemenam said: “In this case, the trial court clearly overreached itself by granting recognition to a factional caretaker committee despite no such relief being sought.”

The Appeal Court added that the legal basis for the Federal High Court’s recognition had collapsed after the Supreme Court nullified the PDP’s Ibadan Convention of November 15–16, 2025.

The court stressed that any leadership structure, committee, or organ created through that convention could not stand after the Supreme Court’s verdict.

“Once the Supreme Court declared the Convention null, void, and without effect, every structure built on it automatically lost legal validity,” the judgment stated.

The court observed that if not for the Supreme Court’s decision on the convention, it might have ordered a retrial on matters concerning the leadership organs from that exercise.

However, the judges ruled that a retrial would be pointless since the Supreme Court had already settled the core issues.

Part of the ruling read: “This Court is compelled to conclude that the offending sections of the judgment, and indeed the entire judgment to the extent that the excess taints it, are a nullity and must be set aside ex debito justitiae.

“Directing the trial court to retry an issue already decided by the Supreme Court would mean asking it to either re-decide what was settled or to sit in judgment over the Supreme Court — both of which are prohibited by law.”

The court concluded that no live controversy remained between the parties, given the binding rulings of both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court that had resolved the fundamental issues of the appeal.

Justice Onyemenam’s decision was supported unanimously by Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Okon Abang, who sat on the three-member panel.

The ruling effectively cancels the Federal High Court’s recognition of the caretaker committee linked to the Abdurahman Mohammed faction, marking another major judicial decision in the long-running PDP leadership crisis.