A Federal High Court in Akure, the Ondo State capital, has issued an order restraining the All Progressives Congress (APC) from conducting its state congress scheduled to hold on Tuesday, March 3.
The presiding judge, Justice Toyin Adegoke, granted the order on Monday while ruling on an ex parte application filed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Adedayo Adedeji.
The application was brought on behalf of aggrieved party members led by Lawrence Adebayo and 7,427 others.
In his ruling, Justice Adegoke ordered the APC to refrain from conducting, holding, or concluding any state congress in Ondo State pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction.
The court also extended the restriction to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), restraining the electoral body from acknowledging or giving effect to the outcome of any congresses conducted by the party in the state.
The judge specifically barred INEC and the APC from “acknowledging, accepting, recognising or giving effect to the purported ward and local government congresses conducted on February 18 and 21, 2026, and the proposed state congress scheduled for March 3, 2026, or any other date.”
Justice Adegoke has fixed March 26, 2026, for the hearing of the substantive suit.
The court order is the latest development in a deepening crisis within the Ondo State chapter of the APC. The party’s ward congresses, held on February 18, were marred by violence and allegations of irregularities.
Tensions had been building in the lead-up to the ward congresses. On February 17, suspected armed thugs attacked the state caretaker chairman, Ade Adetimehin, during a stakeholders’ meeting at the party’s secretariat in Akure. Adetimehin accused members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), allegedly acting on the orders of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, of carrying out the attack. Governor Aiyedatiwa has since denied any involvement.
The situation escalated further on the day of the ward congress when violence broke out in Odode-Idanre, the headquarters of Idanre Local Government Area. Two persons were killed and five others injured during the exercise, raising serious concerns about the party’s ability to conduct a peaceful state congress.
As of press time, the national leadership of the APC had not issued an official response to the court order.
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