On Wednesday, 16 September 2026, in Abuja, the Supreme Court of Nigeria dismissed an appeal tied to former Social Democratic Party national chairman Shehu Musa Gabam and confirmed Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe as National Chairman.

The same afternoon, Hon. Femi Olaniyi Ferrari, Chairman of Chairmen of the Social Democratic Party across Nigeria, hailed the outcome as a landmark SDP victory and sent birthday greetings to National Secretary Dr. Olu Agunloye.

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A five-member panel led by Justice Adamu Jauro, sitting with Justices Haruna Tsammani, A. A. Adumein, Jonah Adah and Joseph Oyewole, held that the appeal had become irrelevant and struck it out.

Counsel for the party treated the ruling as the end of a dispute that had already travelled through the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal and more than one revision of Independent National Electoral Commission records.

Prince Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party presidential candidate and counsel to the party, spoke outside the court and said the case no longer had life. “The Supreme Court said that there is no life in the case and dismissed the case. That is the end of Shehu Gabam. There is nothing about the SDP leadership crisis coming up again,” Prince Adewole Adebayo said. Prince Adewole Adebayo added that Shehu Musa Gabam had already been removed from the party and had not challenged that removal, and that the original suit had been filed by another member seeking recognition for Shehu Musa Gabam.

Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe welcomed the judgment as a win for the party and for democratic order after months in which rival camps pointed to different court papers.

The legal path was not a single hearing. On 22 May 2026 the Supreme Court set aside an earlier Court of Appeal decision that the electoral commission had used to list Shehu Musa Gabam. In April 2026 the commission had published Shehu Musa Gabam as chairman “by court order”. In June 2026 the commission updated its portal in favour of Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe.

In August 2026 the Court of Appeal in Abuja set aside a Federal High Court judgment that had again sought to restore Shehu Musa Gabam, calling that High Court decision a nullity because it sat against the May ruling of the apex court.

Hon. Femi Olaniyi Ferrari, Lagos State chairman of the party and the party’s consensus governorship candidate for Lagos in 2027, said the latest judgment should lift the distraction that has followed the party through 2026.

“This landmark judgment has finally put an everlasting end to the leadership tussle in our great party, SDP. The Supreme Court has spoken, and the path is now clear for peace, unity, and progress,” Hon. Femi Olaniyi Ferrari said. Hon. Femi Olaniyi Ferrari also wished Dr. Olu Agunloye long life, good health and renewed strength.

Public tributes have long treated 16 September as Dr. Olu Agunloye’s birthday. Dr. Olu Agunloye, a former Minister of Power and Steel and a former acting national chairman who later served as National Secretary, has remained a central officer through earlier phases of the crisis. Hon. Femi Olaniyi Ferrari called the pairing of the court result and the birthday a double blessing for the party.

The fight was never only about names on a letterhead. It affected the commission’s published list of officers, the party’s claim to discipline members under its own constitution, and its footing ahead of the 2027 elections, in which Prince Adewole Adebayo is the presidential candidate under the structure led by Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe.

Supporters of Shehu Musa Gabam had, at earlier points, relied on appellate and High Court orders and on periods when the commission listed Shehu Musa Gabam as chairman. Those claims now sit beneath a final dismissal at the highest court.

Balance still requires that earlier record. For several weeks in the spring the Gabam-led list, including Dr. Olu Agunloye as National Secretary, appeared on the commission’s site after the March Court of Appeal judgment in a related primary dispute.

Party officials aligned with Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe argued throughout that internal expulsion and an earlier Supreme Court view on party autonomy had already settled the chair. Wednesday’s panel did not reopen that history in detail. The justices found no live controversy left to decide.

What remains is organisation, not litigation. State chairmen are now expected to rebuild structures without parallel claims on the national secretariat.

The commission had already, in June, shown Prof. Abubakar Sadiq Gombe on its records after the May intervention.

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The 16 September ruling gives that recognition a clearer legal finish, on the same day the Chairman of Chairmen also marked Dr. Olu Agunloye’s birthday.