The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the judicial validation of the 2025 National Convention of the party in Ibadan by an Oyo state High court on Friday, “as a constitutional landmark and a procedural endorsement”.
Delivering judgement yesterday, Justice Ladiran Akintola affirmed that the Ibadan convention that produced Kabiru Turaki as the National Chairman of the party was conducted in full compliance with relevant constitutional and statutory provisions governing party elections in Nigeria, reports Saturday Independent.
Justice Akintola held that the convention, organised by recognised leadership of the party, satisfied all laid down legal requirements as stipulated in the Nigerian Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Dan Osa-Ogbegie, the PDP Publicity Secretary in Edo State, in a statement in Benin yesterday, stated that the high court ruling is a constitutional landmark and a firm declaration that party democracy in Nigeria cannot be hijacked by conspiracy, blackmailed by desperation, or dismantled by sponsored confusion.
The Edo State PDP spokesman, in the statement he titled, “PDP CONVENTION VINDICATED: DEMOCRACY DEFEATS TREACHERY”, stated, “The Court has spoken with unmistakable clarity, the Convention stands, the leadership stands and the sovereign will of party members stands”.
“We congratulate the National Chairman, the National Working Committee, State Chairmen, party leaders and millions of loyal PDP faithful across the federation, especially in Edo state, whose discipline and fidelity to the party did not waver in the face of calculated destabilisation.
“Their restraint has been vindicated. Their loyalty has been justified. Their faith in due process has been rewarded.
“There were forces, both external and embedded within, who invested time, resources and political capital in the hope that the PDP would implode.
“They believed that by crippling the foremost opposition platform, they could weaken democratic accountability in Nigeria. They mistook orchestrated chaos for strategy. They mistook factional noise for political strength”
While saying that the oppositions have miscalculated, Ogbegie said, “To the ruling All Progressives Congress and its political contractors who thought the PDP could be destabilised by proxy, this judgment is a direct rebuke.
“The PDP is not an annex of the APC. It is not a department to be remotely managed. It is not a structure that can be infiltrated, manipulated and rendered ineffective for the convenience of incumbency.
“And to those renegade former PDP members who have effectively relocated their political allegiance to the APC yet continue the charade of belonging to the PDP to sabotage it from within, your duplicity has been exposed.
“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 a 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. 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.
“Our confidence in the PDP has always rested on a simple but unshakeable conviction: that we will submit to 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.
“The Renaissance of the PDP is underway. Let every enemy of democracy take notice: the PDP is lawful, disciplined, united and resolute. And those who wagered against its survival would do well to recalibrate,” he further declared.
