Party crisis: We won’t let PDP die, says Turaki

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Interim National Working Committee (INWC) and former Minister of Social Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki, has said that the opposition party will not be allowed to die.

Turaki stated this on Friday in Abuja while receiving gubernatorial candidates for the 2027 general election who were nominated by his faction of the party. He was reacting to the INWC’s recent loss at the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal had dismissed an appeal filed by the Senator Adolphus Wabara-led PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) against the judgment of a Federal High Court, which refused to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the INWC as the authentic leadership of the PDP.

Recall that the PDP has been embroiled in crisis since November 2025, leading to the split of the various organs of the party into two camps. One camp, which is supported by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, is led by Abdulrahman Mohammed, while the other is led by Turaki.

However, following INEC’s recognition of the Mohammed-led National Working Committee (NWC) as the leadership of the PDP, the Wabara-led BoT approached a Federal High Court seeking to compel the electoral umpire to recognise the Turaki-led INWC.

Nonetheless, the former minister noted that, despite the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the PDP leadership, his team would not relent in its battle to reclaim the party, and he assured supporters of this.

He said: “I have listened to you. Other members of the NWC of the PDP have also listened to you. Your message is quite succinct and is quite clear, and the sum total of your message is that PDP must survive. For us, whatever we are doing is to ensure that the only surviving legacy party in Nigeria, which is the People’s Democratic Party, does not go down.

“We shall remain resolute in this. We will fight on. We will stand up, because when the going gets tough like this, it is often said, there is only the tough that gets going.

“Since the judgment of the Court of Appeal a couple of few days ago, we have received a lot of calls from unbelievable quarters, from our founding fathers and mothers, from members of our Board of Trustees who in any case have gone to court to ventilate this matter.

“Other leaders, past and present, other lovers of democracy in Nigeria, and other Nigerians who feel that the situation in this country is not only appalling, but is indeed unbelievable. Nobody would have thought that Nigeria would have found itself in the kind of situation that we find ourselves in today.

“Nigeria will never go down. PDP will also not go down. Whatever machinations that anybody or group of persons may make, we want to tell them that PDP will continue to survive and that PDP will remain that party, that quintessential party that it had been.

“This struggle will continue. We are hopeful that we will win and we are hopeful that after winning, that PDP candidates shall be on the ballot.”