Court of Appeal stays deregistration of opposition parties; PDP leaders clash over legal representation in Abuja
The Court of Appeal halted a judgment that deregistered five opposition parties and criticized the lower‑court judge, while a dispute between PDP officials over who may appoint lawyers unfolded during a hearing on a suit filed by three aggrieved party members.
According to AllAfrica, the Court of Appeal stayed a judgment that deregistered the ADC, Accord and three other opposition parties. The same report said the appellate court berated the Federal High Court judge who had issued the deregistration order.
AbujaPress.com reported mild drama at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday when PDP National Chairman Umar Damagum and the party’s National Legal Adviser Kamaldeen Ajibade openly disagreed over who has the authority to appoint lawyers for the party. The disagreement occurred during the hearing of a suit filed by three aggrieved PDP members seeking to halt the party’s planned national convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2025, in Ibadan, Oyo State. Senior lawyer Chris Uche (SAN) announced his appearance for the PDP, citing a letter signed by Damagum authorizing him to represent the party, while Ajibade announced his own appearance, arguing that only his office has the constitutional power to engage legal representation on behalf of the party. Both senior lawyers stood their ground before Judge James Omotosho, who presided over the matter.
This account was written only from facts that survived Augur's
corroboration pass — 0 corroborated across opposed news blocs,
0 contested (attributed to both sides), 7
single-source (attributed). Nothing was added; no significance was inferred.
Model Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.
See the evidence & the verbatim quotes →