The leadership tussle within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has deepened as the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the party’s National Working Committee,NEC, faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over its decision to recognise a caretaker committee aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.
In a statement issued on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, the Turaki-led NWC described INEC’s action as unlawful and deliberately provocative, insisting that the commission acted outside the provisions of the party’s constitution.
The faction warned that it had activated all necessary legal mechanisms to contest the recognition granted to the rival group.
The controversy follows a judgment delivered on Friday, January 30, by a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, which voided the PDP National Convention held on November 15, 2025, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The court also ordered Tanimu Turaki (SAN) and others to stop presenting themselves as national officers of the party.
Before the ruling, PDP governors had thrown their weight behind the Ibadan Convention that produced Turaki and members of the NWC for a four-year term.
However, Wike and his allies, Abdulrahman Mohammed and Senator Samuel Anyanwu, maintained that they were still the Acting National Chairman and Acting National Secretary of the party.
Although the governors had facilitated a leadership transition from former Chairman Umar Damagum to Turaki ahead of Damagum’s tenure expiration on December 9, the Wike-backed bloc moved to set up a 13-member caretaker committee on December 8. The committee, headed by Mohammed and Anyanwu, was given a 60-day mandate.
Both factions subsequently approached INEC for official recognition, but the commission initially declined to endorse either side, a development that triggered several court cases as preparations for the 2027 general elections intensified.
Following the Ibadan court judgment, the Turaki-led NWC announced that it had instructed its legal team to immediately file an appeal and exhaust all lawful options available to it.
On the other hand, the Wike-aligned group welcomed the ruling restraining Turaki and others from operating as members of the NWC and declared its intention to convene a fresh national convention to elect new party leaders.
INEC later moved to formally recognise the Wike-backed caretaker committee, allowing its nominees, presented as Acting Chairman, Acting Secretary, and National Organising Secretary, to represent the PDP at the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja on Thursday.
Reacting, Ememobong appealed to party members to remain calm and law-abiding while the courts resolve the leadership dispute.
The statement partly read, “We are aware that the Independent National Electoral Commission invited the leaders of political parties to a meeting today and extended the invitation to some former members of our party who are purporting to lead a so-called National Caretaker Committee to represent our party, whereas there is no such provision in our constitution.
“This action, though ordinarily vexatious and capable of causing a widespread breach of peace, will be met with all possible legal responses. Though not unexpected of this current INEC leadership, it is expected that an impartial umpire would have taken notice of the pendency of the matters in the Court of Appeal (including the judgment which they are relying upon), which, when decided, will effectively affect the subject under consideration, and exercised restraint therefrom. We can assure that INEC will not choose a leadership for our party.
“Consequently, we urge all our members to remain calm and hopeful that, soonest, the Court of Appeal will hear and determine all the cases concerning the leadership of our party.
“We assure that the Rebirth movement of our party, under the able leadership of Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, is steady and secure, and will ultimately surmount all these challenges to present a stronger and more united party to Nigerians as a credible alternative to the ruling party that has brought untold sorrows, tears, and blood to Nigerians.”
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