Turaki Ducted to Court, Hit With N100 Million Bail

PDP factional chairman Kabiru Tanimu Turaki is now fighting a criminal charge in Abuja as the party’s bruising internal war keeps spilling into the courts. He pleaded not guilty, escaped remand, and walked away on a hefty N100 million bail order.

Atlantic Post

April 23, 2026

3–4 minutes

bail ruling, false information charge, FCT High Court, Kabiru Turaki, Nigerian Politics, PDP Crisis

Factional Peoples Democratic Party national chairman Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, was on Wednesday arraigned before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, in a case that has further exposed the depth of the PDP’s leadership fracture.

The charge, filed by the office of the Inspector-General of Police, accuses him of giving false information to the police through a petition dated October 5, 2022. He pleaded not guilty when the count was read to him.

The prosecution says the petition was written to trigger police action against Saidi Mohammed Mainasara and that the act falls under Section 140 of the Penal Code Law.

In plain terms, the state is not merely alleging an inaccurate report, but a deliberate attempt to use law enforcement as a weapon against another man.

That framing raises the political temperature of the case, because it places a senior party figure inside a criminal dispute that now carries both legal and reputational consequences.

The defence came armed with constitutional and statutory firepower. Turaki’s lawyer, Abdulaziz Ibrahim, SAN, leaned on the presumption of innocence under the Constitution and argued that his client was entitled to bail.

He told the court there were no compelling reasons to keep Turaki in custody, insisting that the defendant was outside Abuja when service was attempted, later appeared voluntarily, and apologised for his earlier absence.

Prosecuting counsel Usman Rabiu took the opposite line, urging the court to deny bail and remand the defendant pending trial.

The prosecution also relied on Turaki’s previous failure to appear, a development that had earlier led to a bench warrant before it was later vacated when he showed up in court.

In court politics, that sort of history matters. It feeds the argument that a man who once missed proceedings should not be treated lightly.

Justice Peter Kekemeke ultimately sided with liberty over custody. He held that bail remains a discretionary issue but one that touches on fundamental rights, and ruled that the prosecution had not placed enough before the court to justify refusing it.

Turaki was therefore granted bail in the sum of N100 million with one surety in like sum.

The court also set a very high bar for the surety. The person must be either a Senior Advocate of Nigeria with at least 20 years post-call experience or a legal practitioner with no fewer than 40 years in practice.

That condition is not routine. It signals a judge who wants an anchor of serious standing, not a ceremonial guarantor.

In a case already charged with political meaning, the bail terms themselves have become part of the story.

Turaki’s position gives the case even more bite. He is not an ordinary defendant caught in a routine police matter. He is a former minister and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, now standing as the face of a factional PDP leadership in a party still battling for authority, recognition, and coherence.

That is why this case matters beyond the narrow allegation in the charge sheet. It is not just about one petition from 2022.

It is about power, influence, internal party warfare, and the legal liabilities that follow when political battles spill into state institutions.

The matter has been adjourned to June 11 for trial. Between now and then, Turaki will have to answer the charge in full, while his allies and rivals inside the PDP will almost certainly keep reading the case as another signal of where the party’s fractures are heading.

In Nigeria’s political theatre, a courtroom is often more than a courtroom. In this one, the stakes are both criminal and political.