Three chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have asked the National Judicial Council (NJC) to sanction Justice A. L. Akintola of the Oyo State High Court over alleged judicial indiscretion and abuse of office.
The party members, Austin Nwachukwu, Amah Nnanna, and Turnah George, are plaintiffs in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/2120/2025 currently before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Federal High Court had earlier restrained the PDP from holding its planned national elective convention scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
However, on November 4, the Oyo State High Court presided over by Justice Akintola ordered the PDP and Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, to proceed with the convention.
In their petition to the NJC, Nwachukwu, Nnanna, and George, believed to be associates of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who has expressed opposition to the convention, accused Justice Akintola of issuing an ex parte order that directly contradicted a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court.
They argued that the order amounted to “judicial indiscretion and abuse of office,” insisting that such conduct undermines the integrity of the judiciary.
The petition reads, “Even a non-lawyer knows that a State High Court lacks the authority to function as an appellate Court over a decision of the Federal High Court.
“Therefore, the Ex-Parte Order made by Justice A.L. Akintola, despite the conclusive determination of a similar Suit at the Federal High Court with finality, undermines and further casts aspersions on the Judicial Reforms being championed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“By Justice A.L. Akintola’s Ex-Parte Order, his lordship had thus appointed and constituted himself into an appellate Court and had sat on appeal over the judgment of the Federal High Court and varied same via an Ex-Parte Order.
“His lordship cannot feign ignorance of the judgment of the Federal High Court on the same subject matter because Justice Omotosho’s judgment was not only widely televised on many National Media Houses like NTA, TVC, Arise News, Channels Television and others but also circulated and reported on many National Dailies like Daily Trust Newspaper, The Nation as well as other online News Media.”
The petitioners asked the NJC to probe Akintola over the ex parte order and “ensure judicial space is sanitised”.
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