The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike; former Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose; and the suspended National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, for alleged anti-party activities.
The expulsions were announced yesterday at the party’s controversial Elective National Convention held at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Ibadan, where Ambassador Umar Damagum was also ratified as the substantive National Chairman.
The expelled chieftains immediately dismissed the decisions, describing the Ibadan gathering as a “kangaroo convention” and a “mere jamboree.”
A statement by Wike’s media aide, Mr Lere Olayinka, mocked the event: “What happened in Ibadan was a social gathering where people went to eat, drink and say whatever pleased them. It has no constitutional backing and cannot stand.”
Senator Anyanwu, in his own reaction, insisted that the convention was illegal because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was absent. “Without INEC monitoring, every decision taken there is null, void and of no effect,” he declared.
The convention laid bare the deepening crisis in the main opposition party. Only four PDP governors – Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara) and host governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo) – attended the event.
The Current State of the PDP
Notably absent were Governors Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers), Ademola Adeleke (Osun), Agbu Kefas (Taraba) and several other heavyweights, including former Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido.
In another dramatic development, the entire Kebbi State delegation boycotted the convention in protest against the clearance given to former Minister Kabiru Tanimu Turaki to contest the national chairmanship despite pending court cases against him.
The convention also dissolved all party structures – ward, local government and state executive committees – in five states: Rivers, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Akwa Ibom.
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, who moved the motion for the dissolution, said the action became necessary to bring the affected states in line with congresses conducted nationwide between 2024 and 2025.
Despite the festive atmosphere in Ibadan, with delegates dancing to solidarity songs and hotels fully booked, the boycott by key stakeholders and the rejection of the outcomes by expelled members have cast a long shadow over the party’s unity ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) has also distanced itself from a leaked reconciliation document proposing a caretaker committee, with Chairman Senator Adolphus Wabara insisting that no such proposal emanated from the board.
Political observers say the Ibadan convention, rather than heal the party, may have widened existing cracks and further weakened the PDP’s position as Nigeria’s main opposition platform.
