The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has lauded the judgment of an Oyo State High Court which validated the November 15 and 16, 2025 national convention of the party, describing it as an affirmation of the people’s will.
According to the party, the judgment underscored that the will of party members cannot be substituted with inducement, intimidation, or elite conspiracy.
The state PDP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dan Osa-Ogbegie, said the ruling had shown that internal disagreements must be resolved within constitutional frameworks and not through sponsored litigation, propaganda warfare, or external interference.
On Friday, Justice Ladiran Akintola of High Court 5 in Ibadan, Oyo State, validated the election held at the national convention of the PDP, which produced the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee of the party.
Justice Akintola granted the 13 reliefs sought before the court by a PDP member and claimant, Folahan Adelabi, through his counsel, Musbau Adetunmbi.
In a consequential declaration, the court held that the convention convened on November 15 and 16, 2025, pursuant to its orders of November 3, 2025, and renewed on November 14, 2025, was legal and valid.
It ruled that, as INEC was a party at the time the interim orders were made and renewed, the outcome of the convention was binding on the commission and that it was obliged to give effect to all decisions reached there.
The court consequently directed INEC to continue to give perpetual effect to the outcome of the convention, pending any contrary pronouncement by a higher court.
Commenting on the judgment in a statement titled, “PDP Convention Vindicated: Democracy Defeats Treachery,” Osa-Ogbegie noted that the validation of the convention was more than a procedural endorsement but a constitutional landmark.
He said the judgment was a firm declaration that party democracy in the country could not be hijacked by conspiracy, blackmailed by desperation, or dismantled by sponsored confusion.
“It affirms that internal disagreements must be resolved within constitutional frameworks and not through sponsored litigation, propaganda warfare, or external interference. It underscores that the will of members cannot be substituted with inducement, intimidation, or elite conspiracy,” he said.
Osa-Ogbegie added that there were forces, both internal and external, that invested time, resources, and political capital in the hope that the PDP would implode.
He said the forces believed that by crippling the foremost opposition platform, they could weaken democratic accountability, noting that they mistook orchestrated chaos for strategy and factional noise for political strength.
The Edo PDP spokesperson stated that the judgment was a direct rebuke to the All Progressives Congress, which thought the PDP could be destabilised by proxy, noting that the duplicity of members who work for the APC while claiming to be PDP members had been exposed.
He added, “You attempted to paralyse the party so you could negotiate relevance elsewhere. You tried to weaken the platform that gave you political identity in the first place.
“Your expulsion was not emotional. It was constitutional sanitation. It was necessary. It was corrective. A political party that tolerates indiscipline in the name of false unity soon becomes incapable of governance. The PDP has demonstrated that party supremacy is not a slogan. It is a principle.
“This ruling is therefore both legal and moral in consequence. Our confidence in the PDP has always rested on a simple but unshakeable conviction: that we will submit to the law, uphold constitutional order, and defend party supremacy without apology. Today, that conviction stands reinforced.
“Democracy is not sustained by opportunists. It is sustained by those who respect institutions even when the outcome does not favour them.”
