·Urges INEC to maintain status quo, insists Supreme Court has already settled dispute
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) yesterday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disregard what it described as attempts by its expelled former National Chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, to rely on a Federal High Court judgement to reclaim the party’s leadership.
The party insisted that the judgement cannot override an earlier decision of the Supreme Court.
The party maintained that the Federal High Court judgement being relied upon by Gabam was founded on a Court of Appeal decision that had already been set aside by the Supreme Court.
It argued that any attempt by INEC to act on it would amount to undermining the authority of the nation’s apex court.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, the SDP said its attention was drawn to a letter dated July 9, 2026, purportedly written on behalf of Gabam by White Chambers & Co. to INEC, forwarding the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court in Abuja on June 24, 2026, in a suit instituted by Salawu Adeniyi Mustapha Adeoti against INEC and three others.
The party disclosed that it had already appealed the judgement and that the matter was pending before the Court of Appeal, urging the electoral commission to maintain the status quo pending the final determination of the appeal.
According to the SDP, the plaintiff in the suit was neither its governorship candidate in Osun State nor a participant in its governorship primary election, stressing that Dr. Ajala remained the duly nominated candidate of the party.
The party further argued that the Supreme Court had consistently held that courts lacked jurisdiction to determine who should occupy the positions of National Chairman, National Secretary or other leadership offices in political parties.
It also contended that the Federal High Court judgement did not contain any positive order directing INEC to recognise Gabam as National Chairman or Ogbonna Okechukwu as National Secretary.
The SDP stated that the declaration in the judgement criticising INEC for not recognising Gabam relied on an earlier Court of Appeal decision in Fayemi Tosin Babatunde v. INEC, which had already been nullified by the Supreme Court on May 22, 2026, more than a month before the Federal High Court delivered its judgment.
It maintained that INEC had previously complied with the Court of Appeal judgement before it was overturned by the apex court, leaving no subsisting appellate decision upon which the Federal High Court could rely.
The party warned that any attempt to alter its leadership on the strength of the High Court ruling would effectively amount to restoring a judgement already voided by the Supreme Court.
“The rule of law supersedes the rule of men. The finality and binding nature of Supreme Court decisions made Gabam’s latest move, an exercise in futility,” the statement added.
The SDP accused its former chairman of engaging in actions capable of undermining internal democracy, insisting that the party was not anyone’s personal estate but a national institution belonging to Nigerians.
The party also declared that it had moved beyond the leadership dispute and was concentrating on preparations for the 2027 general elections.
It cited the successful conduct of its second National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in four months as evidence of what it described as a departure from an era of one-man rule and the restoration of constitutional governance within the party.
According to the statement, the SDP has already completed the nomination process for its presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, and vice-presidential candidate, Dr. Usman Bugaje.
It also added that the candidates’ particulars had been uploaded to the INEC portal while working to conclude the submission of documents for other candidates who emerged from its primaries nationwide.
The party added that it was strengthening its structures across the country, expanding its membership, deepening internal democracy, improving accountability and positioning itself as a credible alternative platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.
