The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party, worsened on Thursday, 5 February 2026 after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) treated a caretaker committee backed by Nyesom Wike as the party’s leadership in the days ahead.
Wike is Nigeria’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which administers Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. At INEC’s quarterly consultative meeting in Abuja, Abdulrahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu attended as caretaker chairman and caretaker secretary.
Mohammed sat on a seat marked “PDP Chairman,” while Anyanwu sat behind him on a seat labelled “PDP National Secretary.”
After the session, Anyanwu said they were invited as the party’s “recognised leadership,” citing a court judgment that, he claimed, ended the dispute. “The party’s leadership remains intact under Abdulrahman Mohammed and me,” he said, adding that the PDP would field candidates in the 2027 general elections.
Anyanwu said the caretaker committee planned to take control of Wadata Plaza, the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, on Monday, 9 February 2026, blaming earlier delays on legal and security issues.
The opposing bloc, linked to PDP governors and associated with Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria, is led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In a statement signed by Ini Ememobong, the bloc’s national publicity secretary, the Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) said INEC’s action was unconstitutional, argued the party constitution has no “National Caretaker Committee,” and urged members to stay calm while appeals are heard at Nigeria’s Court of Appeal.
A Federal High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State’s capital, recently nullified the PDP national convention held there on Saturday, 15 November 2025 and Sunday, 16 November 2025, and ordered Turaki and others who emerged from that convention to stop presenting themselves as national officers.
Before the ruling, PDP governors had endorsed the Ibadan convention and backed a transition from former chairman Umar Damagum before his tenure ended on Tuesday, 9 December 2025. The Wike-aligned camp announced a 13-member caretaker committee on Monday, 8 December 2025 with a 60-day mandate. Both factions sought INEC recognition, the commission initially declined, and the dispute moved into several court cases.
Okay News reports that Turaki’s camp has instructed its lawyers to file an appeal, while the Wike-backed bloc welcomed the judgment and said it would organise a fresh convention to elect new officials.
