The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is awaiting the Supreme Court judgment on its leadership crisis after meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The PDP disclosed this on Friday in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong.

“Earlier today, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), invited the Kabiru Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party and some former members of our party who are claiming to be in different leadership positions in the party, to, in his words, ‘find a way to resolve the lingering crisis in the party’,” Ememobong said.

Ememobong added that both sides exhaustively presented the facts of the situation and confirmed that the issues are now before the Court of Appeal.

At the end, the INEC Chairman concluded that the meeting was called to hear from both sides, noting that the commission is aware of the pending cases at the Court of Appeal and that it awaits the final judgment of the court on the matter.

At the end of the meeting, the PDP National Chairman, Turaki, said “As the authentic leadership of the party that emerged at a valid convention(though contested in court), while awaiting the pronouncement of the court, we will continue to undertake the duties of an opposition party, which is to hold government to account on critical issues like security, infrastructure, education, healthcare etc.”

The sack-me-I-sack-you exchanges between the Ibadan national convention-minted national chairman of the PDP and the Abdurahman Muhammed-led Caretaker Committee of the party effectively heightened the travails of the party, thereby presenting itself as the first trial for the Amupitan-led INEC.

The crisis escalated when senior lawyer Turaki and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, shredded the embattled PDP into factions, with the ongoing dispute between the two men running deep into power gamesmanship, relevance, and influence.

Wike, though belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Executive Council, courtesy of President Bola Tinubu’s political magnanimity, insists that as long as he remains a member of the PDP, he must continue to call the shots, especially by dictating who gets what or does what within the party’s structure.

Put simply, the point of departure pertains to how to deploy the PDP for the clashing ambitions and egos of the protagonists: Wike wants the party to have a life of its own, but not a mind of its own as regards the 2027 presidential race; the Turaki-led NWC insists that the party should remain in contention for a rebound to the pinnacle of national politics and governance.

At the centre of this seemingly intriguing complexity and web of conspiracies sits the new INEC chairman. So far, Amupitan, a law teacher, has shown that he is better heeled than his predecessor, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.

Although some tendencies within the embattled PDP believe that Amupitan was merely displaying the optics of impartiality, the conduct of the recent Ekiti State gubernatorial straw poll clearly showed that the new INEC helmsman is not disposed to reading the body language of the Presidency or second-guessing the disposition and intentions of the rules.

Having made his stance clear that elections must be won and lost on the dictates of the electorate, Amupitan’s unapologetic indifference to the nuances of politics seems to convince the two contending forces for the soul of the PDP that he can only be dictated to by the pronouncements of the courts of the land.

PDP stakeholders on both fronts told The Guardian that, despite the claims by the convention and caretaker camps, the contending issues would ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court.