The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said its national convention will go ahead as planned, amid fresh legal threats and deepening divisions within the party between allies of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and a rival bloc led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki.
The dispute centres on control of the party’s leadership and structure, with the current caretaker leadership asserting its legitimacy based on court rulings and the rival group seeking fresh legal action to halt the convention.
At the centre of the crisis are two factions within the PDP: one aligned with Wike, which backs the National Caretaker Working Committee, and another aligned with Turaki and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.
The party’s internal crisis has involved multiple court cases and conflicting claims over who holds legitimate authority to steer party affairs.
At a press conference in Abuja, Hon. Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary of the party’s National Caretaker Working Committee, spoke on behalf of the leadership currently running the PDP.
Mohammed said the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had affirmed the legitimacy and authority of the caretaker committee as the body duly recognised to steer the party’s affairs.
He urged party members and the public to regard those judicial pronouncements as binding and to disregard any contrary claims.
Despite that position, the caretaker leadership acknowledged that the rival faction led by Turaki was making moves in court to halt the convention, escalating the internal battle.
Mohammed said the group planned to approach courts in Ibadan in a bid to secure an injunction to stop the forthcoming national convention.
He described the attempts to use the judiciary to frustrate the party’s activities as unfortunate, noting that the leadership had extended invitations for reconciliation and dialogue that were not honoured by the rival faction.
The caretaker committee appealed to the judiciary to take note of what it called attempts to abuse court processes to block the party’s legitimate activities.
The leadership maintained that the national convention would go ahead on March 29 and 30, 2026, as scheduled, saying all necessary arrangements had been concluded.
Mohammed said the party was fully prepared to deliver a “successful, transparent, and credible convention.”
He said issues such as control of the party’s national secretariat and other national offices would be addressed after the convention.
The party was also still working out questions around the zoning of party offices, with a zoning committee meeting set to discuss the matter.
Despite the tension, the leadership said it remained open to reconciliation, noting that it had made several overtures that were not taken up by the rival faction.
Mohammed said that as both parties had not yet met, it was premature to speak of terms for reconciliation.
On the issue of whether the legal tussle could disrupt the convention, the leadership dismissed concerns, saying earlier conflicting court orders on a related matter had been resolved and that the party’s actions were backed by valid judicial rulings.
For now, both sides remain in a struggle over legitimacy, with one faction relying on existing court rulings to proceed with party activities and the other pursuing fresh legal avenues to influence outcomes.
