The Tanimu Turaki-led Interim National Working Committee (NWC) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday, traded words over the state of the party.
While the minister dismissed the interim arrangement as fraudulent, Turakisaid his comments deserved no response, urging Wike to wait till a certified true copy of the Supreme Court judgement is made public.
Dismissing the committee as fraudulent, Wike also warned Nigerians against being misled by what he called an attempt to create confusion within the party. He insisted that there was only one PDP with its registered national secretariat at Wadata House, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.
Wike maintained that the caretaker committee set up by Turaki and his loyalists was an attempt to deceive the public.
According to him, there is no leadership vacuum in PDP, as suggested Turaki.
Wike said the Supreme Court’s verdict did not create any leadership gap within the party, insisting that any attempt to sell nomination forms by Turaki’sgroup amounts to fraud.
He stated, “You have refused to tell the public what is on ground, and you are coming out to say ‘we are setting up a caretaker committee’, how? And you are deceiving people that you want to sell forms.
“If they are truly in charge, they should be confident enough to open a PDP account where members can pay nomination fees and conduct official transactions.
“I dare them to open, let me see an office you will name PDP national secretariat. If you say you are a party, go and put a sign ‘PDP national secretariat’ just as we are occupying Wadata, that is where everybody knows as PDP national secretariat.
“If you are saying that you want to sell form, to whom? You will submit it where? Is that not fraud? You went to court, we didn’t go to court, and the court gave judgement against you.
“You have not set aside that judgement and you are now coming to deceive people by setting up a caretaker committee, and begin to sell forms. Is that not fraud? What is 419?
“You cannot continue to deceive Nigerians. If they are sure they are the authentic leadership of the PDP, let them open an official PDP account and tell party members to pay nomination fees into it.”
However, Turaki, in a statement by the committee’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said Wike’s claims should at best to be ignored.
Ememobong stated, ‘’Today, Nigerians were treated to an unsolicited over dosage of political rascality, moral emptiness, crass opportunism, and post-loss trauma by Minister Nyesom Wike.
‘’The Minister, a public figure, funded a media convergence where he threw decency to the wind and maligned distinguished Nigerians with reckless abandon. The session was ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’.
‘’That show of shame deserves no response; hence, this statement is therefore not a response to his tirade, which is indeed his political swan song and the last kicks of a dying horse.”
PDP added, ‘’This statement is rather a profuse apology to Nigerians for offering a platform to a person whose conduct, speeches, and reasoning have become not just a national but an international disgrace.
“We must acknowledge that if we did not lend our platform to make him a Chairman, Minister of State, and Governor, the nation would have been saved the unmitigated damage done to the psyche of countless Nigerians.
‘’We admonish those he has defamed to seek legal redress, as no one is, and should be allowed to be, above the law.’’
Stop Distorting Facts, Group Warns Wike
Conference of Professionals in PDP (CP-PDP) berated Wike for attempting to suppress the fact of the Supreme Court judgement of April 30, 2026.
The group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Barrister Obinna Nwachukwu, said the Supreme Court conclusively voided the judgement of the Federal High Court, Ibadan.
The group said the lower court’s judgement had attempted to foist the illegally constituted Abdulrahman Mohammed-led Caretaker Committee on PDP.
It said, ‘’It was a pathetic sight to behold as the Minister became hysterical, continuing to evade questions regarding the import of the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the Cross-Appeal brought by the suspended former National Secretary of the party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.”
CP-PDP said, ‘’The appeal challenged Anyanwu’s suspension from the party by the Damagum-led National Working Committee on November 1, 2025.
‘’For emphasis, the Supreme Court, in dismissing that Cross-Appeal, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal. In affirming the suspension of Senator Anyanwu and three other officers of the party, the court declared that there are no available records showing that the suspension was lifted.
‘’Consequently, during the period of suspension, they ceased to be officers of the party and could no longer carry out any official duties, either as members or as officers.’’
The national coordinator said the direct effect of the overriding judgement of the Supreme Court was that the judgement of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, is voided.
Chuks Okocha and Olawale Ajimotokan
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