Expectedly, the end has finally come to the shenanigans of the expelled former National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, his cohorts and institutional conspirators who have been hands in glove playing ignoble games and severally compromised the system and undermined the interest of the party since June, this year.
The Supreme Court has finally incapacitated the former Chairman by validating the authority and legality of the constitutional action of the National Working Committee (NWC) of 25 May 2025, and 24 June 2025 in the exercise of its exclusive constitutional powers in suspending and consequently expelling the former Chairman, and appointing Dr. Sadiq Umar Abubakar Gombe, as Acting National Chairman, The apex court’s ruling also reinforced the position of Dr. Olu Agunloye as National Secretary of the party. There is, therefore, no more distractions.
The apex court made the definitive judicial pronouncement on Thursday, 19 December 2025 in a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel of Justices, which was led by Justice Mohammed Idris, on the appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeal on the matter, which bordered on the authority of Gombe’s signatures as Acting National Chairman, and Agunloye as National Secretary.
INEC filed an appeal at the Supreme Court on the 17 October 2025 against the ruling of the Court Court of Appeal, which had affirmed the judicial action of Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ruled in favour of the SDP last August in a suit instituted by the party to challenge the refusal of the electoral commission to recognise and publish the names of candidates of the party who emerged from the primaries it conducted for the bye-elections in 12 states, and which it monitored.
INEC refused to recognise the nomination of SDP candidates for the bye-elections on the grounds that the letter of nomination submitted to the commission was signed by Gombe, who “was not known” to INEC, and Agunloye, as National Secretary, but it had to comply with the ruling of the Federal High Court on the matter and listed the candidates of the party in the bye-elections.
In the ruling of the Supreme Court last Thursday, the lead Justice ruled that the court ‘found no justification to dislodge the concurrent findings of the two lower courts — the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal’ on the matter.
The appeal by INEC was consequently dismissed for lacking merit and awarded a cost of N2 million against the counsel to the commission, which is to be paid to the SDP.
This definitive ruling of the Supreme Court has now clearly established that INEC, as the electoral umpire and regulatory body with oversight responsibility over political parties, has no arbitrary powers, and that the authority, and the validity of Gombe’s appointment as Acting National Chairman of the SDP has been affirmed, and has also reinforced the autonomy of political parties in determining their leadership through internal arrangements, in accordance with their constitutions and the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The import of the Supreme Court’s judgement is that INEC has no powers, whatsoever, to meddle in the internal affairs of political parties, and the commission can not, in any way, determine or dictate the leadership arrangements and operations of political parties n the country to suit its whim.
This judicial victory earned by the SDP is a victory for democracy and is worthy of national commendation. It needs to be celebrated by all true democrats and Nigerian patriots, because the party has once again made remarkable contributions to the nation’s political jurisprudence, and helped in further pushing the frontiers of the essential culture of constitutional democracy, towards democratic consolidation and sustainable national development.
Going by this particularly positive development of the ruling of the Supreme Court on the autonomy of political parties, which is clearly unambiguous, it is highly expected that INEC, under the leadership of Prof. Joash Amupitan, a renowned scholar and Professor of Law, whom the party has expressed great confidence, will be guided by the content of the judgement, and expeditiously direct the needed action for the commission to formally recognise and accept the action of the NWC of the party. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the party, the NWC, on 24 June 2025, removed Gabam from his position as National Chairman, affirmed his expulsion, and accepted Gombe as the Acting National Chairman. The party reflected his name in that capacity in the records of the electoral commission, with Agunloye as the National Secretary, along with the other members of the NWC, who constitute the national leadership of the SDP.
Having moved past the encumbrances of the ignoble shenanigans of the former National Chairman and his institutional accomplices, the national leadership of the party, under Gombe as Acting National Chairman, and Agunloye, as National Secretary, is poised to get focused on sustainable growth of the party in the new year, and to earnestly unleash the positive energies of the party towards strengthening its structures and operations at both the national and sub-national levels ahead of the next general elections.
This exciting Supreme Court judgement, which has comprehensively put an end to all the conspiracies of the establishment against the party, elicited wide jubilation in its fold, and has been widely celebrated across the nation by party members, stakeholders, its lovers, its admirers, and political observers, because the development is considered as a remarkable milestone in Nigeria’s democratic journey, particularly in this current political dispensation.
All members of the party across the country are hereby assured that the SDP, as the truly credible alternative political party, is now reinvigorated and well-positioned, more than before, for the task of national redemption and is ready to take its pride of place as the consensus platform that Nigerians repose their trust in ahead of 2027.
The Acting National Chairman, Gombe and the NWC are focused and remain committed to moving the party forward. Members of the party and Nigerians are to look forward to a new dawn. From the beginning of the new year, they will experience far-reaching transformative changes in the party. There will be a recalibration of the SDP, enhanced, robust political engagements, vibrant activities, and operations of a reloaled party that is set to make remarkable impact in the nation’s polity.
Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, National Publicity Secretary, SDP*
