PDP Continues To Wobble As Makinde-backed Faction Appoints Turaki As Interim Nat’l Chairman 

PDP Continues To Wobble As Makinde-backed Faction Appoints Turaki As Interim Nat’l Chairman

 

By Rotela Oguns

 

A faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) backed by the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, has announced the appointment of  Kabiru Turaki as the chairman of the party’s interim National Working Committee (NWC).

 

The decision was taken on Monday at the party’s high-level 103rd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.

 

 

According to the communique of the meeting, Turaki was  appointed to lead a 13-member interim NWC

 

Other members of the committee are Woyengikuro Daniel, Hamza Koshe, Ihediwa Nnabugwu, Isa Abubakar, Okechukwu Daniel, Theophilus Shan, Ini Ememobong, Aribisala Idowu, Bara’u Shafi’i, Ogbu Chinenyenwa, Umar Aji, and Arapaja Taofeek (secretary).

 

 

Aziegbemi Anthony, the PDP chairman in Edo, moved a motion for the appointment of the interim committee.

 

The PDP has been embroiled in  leadership crisis since 2023, a development which has polarised the party.

 

In a bid to resolve the crisis, the factions have dragged one another to court resulting in conflicting verdicts from different jurisdictions.

 

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Adolphus Wabara, chairman of the PDP BoT, announced that the BoT has assumed leadership of the party following the supreme court’s ruling invalidating the national convention held on November 15 and 16, 2025.

 

The convention elected Turaki as the party’s national chairman.

 

The apex court ruling delivered on April 30 was a split judgement in which  three out of five justices  held that the appeal filed by the Turaki-led faction to validate the convention lacks merit.

 

 

Stephen Adah, who read the majority decision, held that the appellants violated a subsisting order of the federal high court, which restrained them from proceeding with the planned convention.

 

 

The appeal marked SC/CV/164/2026 stems from a decision of Peter Lifu, judge of a federal high court in Abuja, who issued a temporary order on November 11, restraining the party from proceeding with the planned convention pending the determination of a substantive suit filed by Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state.

 

On November 14, he made a final order restraining the PDP from conducting its national convention.

 

In his judgment, Lifu held that the evidence before the court established that Lamido was “unjustly denied” the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest the position of national chairman of the party, in violation of the PDP constitution and its internal regulations.

 

 

 

The decision was later upheld by the court of appeal on March 9.

 

Aggrieved, the PDP faction further appealed the appellate court’s decision.

 

In the majority judgment, Adah held that the appellants went ahead in “flagrant disregard” of the subsisting order of the federal high court.

 

The apex court held that, instead of abiding by the lower court’s order or appealing it immediately, the PDP abused the court process by filing a similar case before another court of coordinate jurisdiction.

 

 

 

The court also noted that the appellants in their appeal did not challenge the findings of the court of appeal that criticised the party for disobeying a subsisting court order.

 

Consequently, Adah upheld the appellate court’s verdict and dismissed the appeal.