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.