The Supreme Court of Nigeria has unanimously nullified a Court of Appeal judgment that had formed the legal basis for the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) recognition of Shehu Gabam as National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), effectively dismantling the Gabam-led leadership structure and restoring the party’s governance to the faction led by Dr Sadiq Abubakar Gombe.
The judgment, delivered in Suit No. SC/CV/229/2026 on Friday, May 22, 2026, set aside the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in its entirety extinguishing the legal foundation upon which INEC had updated its official records in April 2026 to list Gabam as the party’s national chairman and recognise his National Working Committee.
The ruling marks the latest and most decisive development in the prolonged internal battle over the control of the SDP, which has generated multiple rounds of litigation across three tiers of Nigeria’s judiciary and produced conflicting judgments that fuelled confusion about the party’s legitimate leadership as the 2027 election cycle intensifies.
The crisis that reached the Supreme Court on Friday originated from a suit filed by an SDP member, Fayemi Babatunde, who challenged the legality of the Ekiti State governorship primary election conducted by the party leadership under Dr Sadiq Gombe.
Babatunde argued in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/126/2026 that the National Working Committee constituted under Dr Gombe was illegally formed in violation of the SDP constitution and provisions of the Electoral Act. He maintained that the Gombe-led leadership lacked the legal authority to appoint an electoral committee or conduct valid governorship primaries, and asked the court to restrain INEC from recognising candidates produced through the disputed process.
The matter first went before the Federal High Court in Abuja, where Justice Emeka Nwite presided. On January 19, 2026, Justice Nwite dismissed Babatunde’s suit and upheld the legality of the Gombe-led leadership as well as the party’s internal processes. The Federal High Court’s judgment effectively validated Dr Gombe as the authentic SDP national chairman and endorsed the party’s Ekiti governorship primary held on November 8, 2025, which produced Mr Bamidele Oludele (also identified in some reports as Bankole Oludele) as the winner.
Babatunde appealed the Federal High Court’s decision to the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division. On March 27, 2026, a three-member appellate panel delivered a judgment that partly overturned the lower court’s ruling setting in motion the chain of events that ultimately led to INEC recognising the Gabam faction.
The appellate panel was led by Justice Eberechi Nyesom-Wike, with Justices Abba Mohammed and Oyejoju Oyewumi concurring. The Court of Appeal made several critical findings.
First, the appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to make conclusive pronouncements on the SDP leadership dispute. This jurisdictional finding was significant because it struck at the very foundation of Justice Nwite’s judgment if the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction, then its pronouncements on who legitimately led the SDP were made without the legal authority to make them.
Second, the appellate court ruled that Babatunde himself was not an aspirant in the disputed Ekiti governorship primary, a finding that related to his standing to challenge the primary process.
Third, despite the finding on Babatunde’s non-aspirant status, the appellate court nonetheless voided portions of the Federal High Court judgment which had recognised Dr Sadiq Gombe as the authentic national chairman of the party. This was the most consequential aspect of the ruling, as it removed the judicial endorsement that the Gombe faction had relied upon to assert its legitimacy.
Fourth, the appellate court nullified the Federal High Court’s validation of the November 8, 2025, Ekiti governorship primary election.
However, in what appeared to be an internally contradictory aspect of the judgment, the Court of Appeal simultaneously relied on INEC’s monitoring report identified as Exhibit INEC 3 which confirmed that the same governorship primary it had nullified was conducted with valid delegates and produced a legitimate winner.
Following the Court of Appeal’s decision, INEC updated its official records in April 2026, treating the appellate court’s voiding of the Federal High Court’s recognition of Dr Gombe as effectively clearing the way for the rival Gabam faction to be listed as the party’s legitimate leadership.
INEC’s updated records listed Shehu Gabam as SDP National Chairman and Olu Agunloye as National Secretary. Other National Working Committee members displayed by the commission included Hajia Maggie Mariam as National Treasurer and Aderemi Abimbola as National Legal Adviser. Several positions were marked “By Court Order,” indicating that the commission’s recognition of the leadership structure was directly tied to the appellate court’s decision.
The matter reached the Supreme Court through an appeal challenging the Court of Appeal’s March 27 decision. On Friday, May 22, 2026, the apex court delivered a unanimous judgment in Suit No. SC/CV/229/2026, setting aside the Court of Appeal’s ruling in its entirety.
By nullifying the appellate court’s decision, the Supreme Court effectively accomplished several things simultaneously.
First, the legal basis upon which the Court of Appeal voided the Federal High Court’s recognition of Dr Gombe as SDP national chairman has been removed. This means the Federal High Court’s original judgment of January 19, 2026 which upheld the legality of the Gombe-led leadership and the party’s internal processes — is effectively restored as the operative judicial pronouncement on the SDP leadership question.
Second, the Court of Appeal’s nullification of the Ekiti governorship primary of November 8, 2025, has been set aside, potentially restoring the validity of that primary and the candidacy of the winner, Mr Bamidele Oludele.
Third, and most critically, INEC’s recognition of the Gabam-led leadership which was based entirely on the now-nullified Court of Appeal judgment no longer has any legal foundation. The commission’s official records listing Gabam as national chairman and recognising his NWC were predicated on the appellate court’s decision. With that decision now set aside by the Supreme Court, the legal basis for those records has been extinguished.
The Supreme Court’s decision engages several important principles of Nigerian law.
The jurisdictional question whether the Federal High Court had the authority to adjudicate on the SDP leadership dispute in the first instance was central to the Court of Appeal’s reasoning. The appellate court had held that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction, which formed the basis for voiding its pronouncements on the party leadership. The Supreme Court’s decision to set aside the appellate ruling in its entirety suggests that the apex court either disagreed with the jurisdictional finding or found other grounds to reverse the appellate court’s decision.
The question of standing — whether Babatunde, as a non-aspirant, had the legal capacity to challenge the governorship primary — was another issue that the Court of Appeal had addressed. The appellate court’s finding that he lacked aspirant status, combined with its simultaneous voiding of the Federal High Court’s leadership recognition, had created a somewhat paradoxical situation where a party who was found to lack sufficient standing nonetheless obtained substantial relief. The Supreme Court’s reversal may have addressed this apparent inconsistency.
The principle of party autonomy the extent to which courts can intervene in internal party affairs is also implicated. The SDP leadership dispute is fundamentally a question of which faction legitimately controls the party’s internal structures, a matter that sits at the intersection of party autonomy, the provisions of the party’s constitution, and the requirements of the Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court’s ruling places INEC in a position where it must update its records to reflect the new legal reality. The commission’s recognition of the Gabam-led leadership, which was explicitly marked “By Court Order” in its records, has now been undermined by a higher court order from the apex court.
INEC is bound by Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution to obey the decisions of the Supreme Court. The commission will therefore be required to revise its official records to remove the Gabam faction and restore the Gombe-led leadership as the party’s recognised structure unless the Gabam faction obtains separate legal orders from another proceeding to maintain its position.
The practical implications for the SDP’s participation in the 2027 elections are significant. The question of which faction is recognised by INEC determines which faction can conduct valid primaries, nominate candidates, and participate in the general elections under the SDP banner. With the Supreme Court effectively restoring the Gombe faction, the candidates nominated by the Gabam faction if any may face validity challenges, while the Gombe faction’s processes and candidates would enjoy the presumption of legitimacy.
The SDP leadership crisis is one of several internal party disputes that have characterised the pre-2027 election period in Nigeria, alongside the PDP’s dual leadership structures, the ADC’s recognition battles, and the APC’s internal primary disputes. The Supreme Court’s intervention provides the most definitive judicial resolution available in the Nigerian legal system, and its unanimous nature leaves no room for ambiguity about the legal position.
However, the practical question of whether the Gabam faction will accept the ruling and cede control of the party structures it has been operating, or whether the dispute will continue through other legal or political channels, remains to be seen.
The ruling also underscores the recurring problem of conflicting court orders in Nigerian party politics, where different courts at different levels issue decisions that produce contradictory outcomes leaving INEC and party members caught between competing judicial directives until the Supreme Court provides a final resolution.
The SDP leadership structure now returns to the control of the Dr Sadiq Abubakar Gombe-led faction pending any further legal or political developments within the party. INEC is expected to update its records accordingly.
The post “INEC’s Recognition Of Gabam Has No Legal Foundation” — Supreme Court Sets Aside Appeal Court Judgment, Restores Gombe-Led SDP Leadership appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.
