The crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party deepened on Tuesday as PDP governors rejected the consensus national chairman and secretary announced by the Nyesom Wike-backed faction.
The governors insisted that the process was illegal and vowed to challenge it in court.
The Wike camp had named Abdulrahman Mohammed and Senator Samuel Anyanwu as consensus National Chairman and National Secretary ahead of the March 29–30 National Convention.
But senior PDP figures aligned with the governors and the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee dismissed the announcement, saying they would explore all legal remedies to protect their position.
According to top party officials, the NWC met for four hours on Tuesday at the Bauchi Governor’s Lodge in Abuja and will reconvene today to decide on next steps.
They described the Wike-backed consensus arrangement as a breach of procedure, noting that the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act and the Nigerian Constitution would all be reviewed before taking any further action.
The PDP has remained sharply divided for almost a year. The governors’ camp, supported by Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde and Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed, held a convention in Ibadan on November 16 where Turaki and other NWC members were elected.
In response, the Wike faction set up a 13-member caretaker committee in December, with Mohammed and Anyanwu appointed as acting national officers to oversee the party pending a substantive convention.
On March 9, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja which invalidated the Ibadan convention for violating the Electoral Act and the PDP Constitution.
Another appellate panel later encouraged both factions to pursue reconciliation, but fresh disagreements over the upcoming convention appear to have stalled the peace process.
A source within the governors’ camp said reconciliation broke down because the Wike group insisted they must participate in the convention by purchasing nomination forms.
He argued that the entire process was “fundamentally flawed,” adding that the governors would consider all legal options to resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, insiders within the Wike-aligned caretaker committee said all geopolitical zones had already agreed on consensus candidates for NWC positions.
They confirmed that Anyanwu and Mohammed remained the consensus picks for National Secretary and National Chairman.
Zonal leaders across the North-West, South-East, South-West, North-East and South-South were also said to have agreed on positions allocated to their regions, with most selections reached by consensus.
A North-Central caucus meeting on Tuesday night endorsed Abdulrahman Mohammed as consensus National Chairman after Wike reportedly persuaded former Benue Governor Samuel Ortom and ex-Kogi Deputy Governor Philip Salawu to step aside.
Religion was also considered in the decision, with the zone opting for a Muslim chairman since the secretary position was zoned to the South-East.
Jungudo Mohammed, the publicity secretary of the Wike-backed faction, neither confirmed nor denied the consensus list but said the party leadership was right to adopt consensus, calling it the best approach for maintaining unity and reducing tension.
In a related development, former presidential candidate Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim warned the Wike group against going ahead with a factional convention, saying it could further damage the PDP.
He argued that the reconciliation process was disrupted by “fifth columnists” working to derail unity efforts and advised both camps against tampering with state party executives in Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Kano.
He stressed that the tenures of the recognised state chairmen—Raymond Dabo (Plateau), Adamu Ninga (Nasarawa), Edward Masha (Kaduna) and Yusuf Kibiya (Kano)—should not be violated, warning that imposing parallel structures would worsen the crisis.
Olawepo-Hashim urged all factions to return to negotiations and finalise a unified leadership arrangement, noting that any factional convention would result in “a lose-lose outcome” and weaken the PDP ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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