Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have moved to stop Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike bloc from taking control of the party’s leadership and activities.
The move came on Tuesday after a faction loyal to Wike announced plans to reschedule the party’s national convention and dissolved key party structures.
The Wike-backed group, which calls itself the PDP National Caretaker Committee, said it was shifting the party’s national convention from March 28 to March 29 and 30. It also announced the immediate dissolution of the party’s zonal committees in the South-West, North-West and Plateau State.
The caretaker committee said it was acting on the authority of a Federal High Court judgment delivered in Ibadan last Friday, which nullified the PDP National Convention held in November 2025 and sacked the party’s National Working Committee led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN).
But PDP Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo State), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State), and other governors supporting the Turaki-led NWC rejected the caretaker committee’s announcements.
They said the committee had no constitutional right to organise a convention or dissolve any committee of the party.
The Turaki-led NWC’s spokesman, Ini Ememobong, dismissed the caretaker committee’s plans as “self-deception.” He said, “They are just deceiving themselves. They do not have the power to do what they are doing. It has not happened.”
The PDP has been split into two main factions since the party’s last national convention in Ibadan in November 2025, where Turaki and other NWC members were elected for a four-year term.
Wike and his allies rejected the outcome of that convention and have since maintained that they are the authentic leaders of the party.
On December 8, Wike’s group formed a 13-member caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party. The committee includes Mohammed Mohammed, Samuel Anyanwu, and others who now act as NWC members.
Both the governors’ group and the Wike group have tried to get official recognition from the Independent National Electoral Commission as the authentic PDP leadership, but INEC has refused to recognise either of them.
The stalemate has led to multiple court cases, with both sides claiming to be the legitimate PDP leadership ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Staff Take Sides
On Tuesday, the management and staff of the PDP national secretariat weighed in on the crisis. They issued a statement declaring their loyalty to the Turaki-led NWC.
The statement, signed by the Acting Director of Administration, Gambo Gaude, the Director-General of the PDP Institute, Dr. Edward Ugbada, and 74 other staff members, said they would not recognise any other leadership apart from the Turaki-led NWC.
They argued that the court had no right to interfere in the party’s internal affairs and that the Ibadan convention that produced Turaki was held in line with the PDP constitution.
Personal Attacks
The crisis took a personal turn on Tuesday during the commissioning of the new Oyo State PDP secretariat in Ibadan. Governor Seyi Makinde said there was no more room for “vagabonds” in the PDP.
“In the PDP, those unruly elements came of age in 2015. The vagabond had their moment, almost a decade of disruption and recklessness, but they were firmly shown the way out in November 2025,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the courts would eventually rule in favour of his group.
Wike’s camp responded immediately. His media aide, Lere Olayinka, said Makinde was an inconsistent politician who would be consumed by “the fire of political treachery he himself ignited.”
A Wike ally in Rivers State, Chimenem Wodi, also criticized Makinde. He said comparing Makinde to Wike was a “mismatch” and that Wike had more political strength and control.
“Politics is about results, and Wike is excellent,” Wodi said.
What Happens Next
The Wike-backed caretaker committee says it is going ahead with its planned convention on March 29 and 30. It also said it would soon appoint new caretaker committees for the dissolved zones.
But the PDP governors and the Turaki-led NWC say they will not allow that to happen. They have instructed their lawyers to appeal last Friday’s court judgment and are challenging the caretaker committee’s authority at every turn.
With both sides digging in, the crisis in the PDP is likely to get worse in the coming weeks.
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