A caretaker committee linked to allies of Nyesom Wike, Nigeria’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and a former governor of Rivers State in southern Nigeria, on Thursday, 5 February 2026 attended a quarterly consultative meeting held by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s election management body, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The group, drawn from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), one of Nigeria’s main opposition parties, was led at the INEC headquarters by its Acting National Chairman, Abdulrahman Mohammed, alongside its Acting National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and the party’s National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature.
Okay News reports that at the venue, Mohammed sat in a front-row seat marked “PDP Chairman,” while Anyanwu took a seat behind him labelled “PDP National Secretary,” as INEC met representatives of registered political parties to discuss election-related issues and party administration concerns.
The appearance comes amid a deepening leadership dispute inside the PDP following a court ruling in Ibadan, a major city in Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria. A Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, on Friday, nullified the PDP National Convention held on Saturday, 15 November 2025 in Ibadan and directed Tanimu Turaki, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and other officials produced by that convention to stop presenting themselves as national officers of the party.
Before the judgment, PDP governors across Nigeria had supported the Ibadan convention, which produced Turaki and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) for a four-year term.
However, Mohammed and Anyanwu, backed by Wike and his political allies, continued to insist they remained the party’s acting leaders, even after the governors facilitated a transition from former chairman Umar Damagum to Turaki ahead of Damagum’s tenure expiration on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.
As the leadership battle intensified, the Wike-aligned bloc set up a 13-member caretaker committee on Monday, 8 December 2025, naming Mohammed and Anyanwu among those to serve a 60-day mandate to manage the party’s affairs.
Both the governors’ bloc and the Wike-aligned faction later approached INEC seeking official recognition, but the electoral commission declined to formally acknowledge either side, a development that has triggered multiple legal disputes as Nigeria heads toward its 2027 general elections.
After the court ruling, the Turaki-led NWC, through its Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said its legal team had been instructed to file an immediate appeal and pursue all available legal options.
Anyanwu, speaking on the INEC meeting, said the caretaker leadership was invited in that capacity. He welcomed the court decision stopping Turaki and others from operating as the party’s national leadership and said the caretaker team would organise a fresh convention to elect new NWC members.
He said, “Yes, we were invited yesterday as the recognised leadership of the PDP, and we are here to participate in this crucial consultative meeting between INEC and political parties to deliberate on party matters and electoral issues.”
Anyanwu added that, in his view, the judgment had effectively ended the internal crisis and that the party’s leadership remained under Mohammed and himself as the PDP prepares for future elections.
