Court Stops Ondo APC Congress, Bars INEC From Recognizing Earlier Exercises

The Federal High Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State capital, has restrained the All Progressives Congress (APC) from conducting its planned state congress scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

Justice Toyin Adegoke gave the order on Monday while ruling on an ex parte application filed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Adedayo Adedeji, on behalf of aggrieved party members led by Lawrence Adebayo and 7,427 others.

In his ruling, Adegoke directed the APC not to “conduct, hold, proceed with or conclude any state congress in Ondo State” pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction.

The court also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission 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.”

The judge subsequently fixed March 26 for the hearing of the substantive motion.

The court’s intervention comes amid heightened tension and violence that trailed the party’s ward congresses in the state.

On February 17, suspected armed thugs reportedly attacked Ade Adetimehin, the caretaker chairman of the APC in Ondo State, during a stakeholders’ meeting at the party’s secretariat in Akure.

Adetimehin alleged that members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, said to be led by its chairman, Ademola Odudu, carried out the attack on the orders of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

However, Aiyedatiwa denied the allegation, distancing himself from the incident.

Naija News understands that violence further escalated on February 18 during the APC ward congress in Odode-Idanre, headquarters of Idanre Local Government Area, where two persons were reportedly killed and five others injured.

The incidents have deepened the crisis within the Ondo APC, with rival factions trading accusations over control of the party structure ahead of future political contests.