The internal crisis within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) deepened on Monday as some allies of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC), accusing Justice A. L. Akintola of the Oyo State High Court of judicial misconduct.
The petition, signed by Hon. Austine Nwachukwu, Hon. Amah Abraham Nnanna, and Turnah Alabh George, followed Justice Akintola’s decision permitting the PDP to proceed with its national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, despite an earlier Federal High Court ruling restraining the party from doing so.
According to the petitioners, Justice Akintola’s ex parte order directly contradicted the subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court, describing it as an act of “judicial indiscretion and abuse of office.”
“Even a non-lawyer knows that a State High Court lacks the power to sit as an appellate court over the decision of a Federal High Court,” the petition stated.
They argued that Justice Akintola’s order undermines the judicial reforms being pursued by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, alleging that he “varied and overruled” a valid Federal High Court judgment through an improper ex parte ruling.
The petitioners urged the NJC to investigate Justice Akintola’s conduct and take steps to “sanitise the judicial space” to restore public confidence in the judiciary.
The development marks another twist in the PDP’s ongoing leadership dispute, with Wike’s loyalists and the Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee (NWC) locked in a fierce internal battle over the party’s control and convention plans.
