The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ini Ememobong, has hailed the recent Oyo State High Court ruling affirming the party’s Ibadan Convention as a victory for democratic transparency over legal technicalities.
This follows a messy legal tug-of-war within the PDP that began after the party’s November 2025 Ibadan Convention.
While one court recently nullified the election of the Kabiru Turaki, this new ruling from the Oyo State High Court validates the convention and the current executive team.
Speaking with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Ememobong said:
“This case has been on for a while; this case predates the convention. In fact, this is the case upon which the order was made mandating or directing PDP to go on with the election. At that time, INEC was a party to this case. So, like every case, it must have an end; it had its end today.
“What this judgment does is to align them. Justice is served when law aligns with the facts”, he stated.
Noting that political legitimacy had not been the issue, Ememobong argued that PDP’s crisis is purely legal.
“Political acceptance and legitimacy has never been an issue. It’s never been an issue because just a few days ago you saw it in Abuja. Despite the issues we have, the only impediment—the only cog in the wheel of the progress of the PDP—is the legal issues where some of the judgments were not in tandem with what the facts are.
Addressing the delay in disciplining internal rivals, Ememobong defended the PDP’s restraint as a necessary move rooted in peace and conflict analysis.
” In peace and conflict analysis, you must give a cooling time when people are angry. That is why they say don’t beat a child and expect that child not to cry. A gentleman spent a fortune—we saw videos of vehicles—he was ready for the presidential election but he lost at the primaries. He wanted to be Vice President, spent a lot of money, and lost. How do you beat a child and not expect him to cry?
So the leadership of the party at that time felt there will be a cooling period. If you slap me, the law permits me to return in equal measure immediately, but we felt there should be a time for cooling”, he explained.
Ememobong further revealed that the PDP is reconciling and rebuilding ahead of the 2027 elections, noting that efforts are being made to keep stakeholders.
“Reconciliation must be to the benefit of PDP. We’re not reconciling to kill PDP. We’re not asking for the peace of the graveyard. We have stated clearly, unambiguously, we are sending our presidency back to the South. We’ve said so for this period.
“At that point, with elections coming close, a lot of people are interfacing with us. Things are happening at different levels; politics is local. We’re not denying the fact that this has been a setback. When you find that two or three of your players are not there, that’s sufficient to dislocate a team, but we also have enough time to replace those people because in every team, you have a replacement for everyone, including the coach”, he stated.
He also explained that the PDP is focused on rebuilding the party based on principles while listening to all members.
“What we are doing is to rebirth the party on the path of principle. We must take the voices of the people. There are two voices in a political party: you have the qualitative voices—the governors, the senators, the big people; and you have the quantitative voices—those voices you may not know their names.”
Speaking on possible alignment of PDP with other opposition parties, Ememobong noted that a unified opposition is likely in the future.
“The entire opposition movement will have to unify at some point, but the workability and the intricacies of that understanding is something the leaders must work out, and they are already talking backstage now.
“A unified opposition will be a fait accompli. But we must have our individual bases consolidated sufficiently so that when we come together, it becomes a force of nature. We are working together on different fronts; we issued joint statements—PDP, ADC, and NNPP—on the electoral law before it was passed. We are talking on different fronts to smoothen what will become that understanding”, he explained.
Favour Odima
Follow us on:
