… Restores Status Quo
In a decisive blow to the national leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Kaduna State High Court, Zaria Judicial Division, sitting in Zaria has issued a sweeping restraining order halting the activities of a controversial caretaker committee foisted on the Kaduna State chapter.
This followed a suit earlier filed by six aggrieved elected executive members of the party.
Presiding over Suit No. KDH/Z/280/2025, Justice Kabir Dabo granted interim injunctions in favour of the six aggrieved elected executive members of the SDP—Alhaji Adamu Idris, Mohammed Abdul, Habibu Murtala, Ephraim Kyari, Titus M. Madaki, and Caleb Atiku—who are challenging the dissolution of the elected State Working Committee by the party’s national hierarchy.
The suit targets prominent party figures, including SDP National Chairman Alhaji Shehu Gabam, Hon. Abdullahi Maikano (Chairman of the Caretaker Committee), Bashir Zakariya (Vice Chairman 1), Comrade Lawal Buba (Vice Chairman 2), and Hon. Bege Katuka (Vice Chairman 3) and many others, along with INEC as a third respondent.
The court’s ruling explicitly restrains the defendants from enforcing the dissolution or parading themselves as leaders of the Kaduna chapter, ordering that “status quo ante bellum” be maintained pending a full hearing set for July 24, 2025.
Furthermore, the court granted leave for substituted service of court processes on the defendants via the SDP’s Kaduna office on Ahmadu Bello Way.
This development underscores deepening cracks within the SDP and sets the stage for a legal showdown that may determine the party’s structure and leadership legitimacy in Kaduna State and beyond.
