The former Abia State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amah Abraham, has said that outcomes of the party’s recent national convention held in Ibadan have not been recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking during an interview on Arise News on Tuesday, Abraham said INEC had made it clear that the courts would determine the way forward amid ongoing disputes within the party.
According to him, INEC did not endorse the convention but merely issued a caution to the warring factions within the PDP.
“Everything that happened at Ibadan has not been recognised by INEC. INEC, as the body saddled with the responsibility of managing the affairs of political parties in Nigeria, made it very clear that, for now, the courts will determine the way forward. What INEC did on that day was to issue a vote of caution to the political parties,” he said.
He explained that the meeting involving INEC was not convened to endorse the convention but to warn party stakeholders against acting in violation of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, INEC guidelines and the PDP’s own constitution.
Abraham said the convention went ahead despite existing interim orders from two Federal High Courts, including “Omotosho’s court” and another arising from a suit filed by a former governor of Jigawa State, both of which directed the party not to proceed until certain issues were resolved.
He dismissed claims that an order from an Oyo State court validated the convention, describing it as an ex parte order that did not amount to a substantive judgment.
“The Oyo court order was an interim ex parte order, not a judgment,” he said, adding that the court later delisted INEC from the matter on the grounds that a state high court lacked jurisdiction to exercise oversight over a federal agency.
Recall that the PDP on November 15th 2025, held its national convention in Ibadan, culminating in the emergence of former Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki, as the new National Chairman.
Despite an Abuja High Court ruling obtained by former Adamawa governor, Sule Lamido, and other subsisting court orders seeking to stop the event, party leaders insisted the convention would continue. Members of the Board of Trustees expressed confidence in the legality of the exercise.
Speaking, Abraham faulted the conduct of the convention on procedural grounds, alleging that over 12 states had not concluded their congresses before the national convention was held, thereby disenfranchising those states.
“Just two days or three days to that convention, Umar Damagum alone wrote to INEC, against the spirit of our constitution, against the spirit of the electoral act, informing INEC that congresses will no longer take place in one, two, three local states.
“The implication is that if you proceed to a national convention, those states will not have a national delegate. And what you have succeeded to do is to disenfranchise them. And that is not the spirit of a national convention, because it must be holistic,” he said.
He further claimed that some states, including Abia, were dissolved during the convention process, a move he described as contrary to the spirit of inclusiveness required for a national convention to hold its ground.