The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), led by Adolphus Wabara, has filed a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seeking official recognition of the party’s interim National Working Committee (NWC). Other plaintiffs in the case include former ministers Zainab Maina and Maryam Ciroma, former Information Minister Jerry Gana, former Niger State Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, PDP chieftain Olabode George, as well as BoT member Esther Uduehi.
INEC is the sole defendant in the suit.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1159/2026, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on June 4. The plaintiffs are asking the court to direct INEC to update its records and publish on its website the names of the interim NWC members submitted by the PDP’s BoT and National Executive Committee (NEC).
The legal action follows a recent ruling by the Court of Appeal, which overturned key parts of a Federal High Court judgment that had recognized a so-called Wike factional caretaker committee within the PDP.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on June 3, the appellate court held that the lower court granted reliefs that were not requested by any of the parties involved in the PDP leadership dispute. The court ruled that the trial judge went beyond the issues placed before it.
In their suit, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that INEC is legally bound to comply with and enforce existing judgments of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court relating to the party’s leadership crisis.
They are also seeking an order directing INEC to accept and act on all official communications, notices and engagements from the interim NWC established by the PDP’s BoT and NEC.
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, Aliyu stated that several party officials, including former National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu, were suspended by the PDP’s NWC in November 2025 over allegations of misconduct, anti-party activities and insubordination.
He said the suspensions were upheld by subsequent court decisions, while other judicial rulings nullified the PDP national convention held in November 2025.
According to Aliyu, those judgments created vacancies in the party’s leadership structure, prompting the BoT to establish an interim NWC to manage the affairs of the party pending the conduct of a valid national convention.
He argued that INEC has a constitutional duty to obey valid and subsisting court judgments and urged the court to compel the electoral commission to recognize the interim leadership.
As of the time the suit was filed, the case had not been assigned to a judge.
