Nearly three months after the expiration of his initial tenure of office, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum remains the recognized National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, sustained by a combination of court rulings, statutory recognition by the Independent National Electoral Commission, and internal party decisions — even as factional disputes and reconciliation efforts continue to dominate the party’s landscape.
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A check on the INEC website as of this week reveals that Damagum, alongside Senator Samuel Anyanwu as Secretary, Ahmed Yayale Mohammed as Treasurer, and Kamaldeen Ajibade as Legal Adviser, are still listed as the official national officers of the PDP.
This persistence of INEC’s recognition, despite the turbulence that has engulfed the main opposition party, reflects a clear legal reality: until the electoral commission receives valid notice of a change supported by a lawful convention or a final court order, it must continue to treat the last valid leadership as subsisting.
How Damagum’s Chairmanship Has Been Sustained
Damagum first emerged as acting National Chairman in March 2023 to fill a vacancy, consistent with the PDP Constitution’s succession provisions. In August 2025, the party’s National Executive Committee affirmed him as substantive chairman. This was further ratified at the national convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November 2025, where he was confirmed in the role.
However, the Ibadan convention became the subject of multiple legal challenges. A Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho, nullified the convention results for non-compliance with the PDP Constitution and prior court orders. The court barred INEC from recognizing the outcomes of that convention and suspended certain officers associated with rival factions.
Crucially, however, the same judgment that nullified the Ibadan convention recognized the Damagum-Anyanwu leadership structure — often referred to as the caretaker committee — as the only valid national leadership of the PDP pending a fresh, lawfully conducted convention.
Court Of Appeal Reinforced Damagum’s Position
The legal position was further strengthened on March 9, 2026, when the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja dismissed an appeal filed by the rival faction associated with Tanimu Turaki, who had been proposed as an alternative chairman.
The appellate court upheld Justice Omotosho’s Federal High Court judgment in its entirety, effectively maintaining the pre-convention status quo with Damagum’s leadership structure as the valid one. The court also awarded costs against the Turaki faction, reinforcing that their claims lacked legal merit.
In legal terms, when a court restores the status quo ante, it returns the party to the last undisputed leadership position. In this case, that position is Damagum’s chairmanship, not the claims of any rival faction.
INEC’s Consistent Recognition
Throughout 2025 and into 2026, INEC has consistently upheld Damagum as the constitutionally recognized PDP National Chairman for all official purposes.
In a significant move that underscored this recognition, INEC formally rejected correspondence from Abdulrahman Mohammed — a loyalist of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike — who had described himself as acting national chairman. The electoral commission instead responded to Damagum as the recognized chairman.
When a faction of the party attempted to postpone the PDP Ekiti State governorship primary earlier scheduled for November 8, 2025, through a letter signed by Mohammed as acting national chairman and addressed to INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan, INEC effectively disregarded that communication.
Instead, the commission responded to correspondence from Damagum and deployed election monitors for the PDP governorship primary in Ado-Ekiti, which proceeded as scheduled under the authority of the Damagum-led leadership. By monitoring the primary under Damagum’s authority, INEC tacitly affirmed his faction as the authentic leadership of the party.
The Legal Framework
Under Section 82 of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC must deal only with the officers submitted to and recognized by it as the lawful national leadership of a political party. This statutory provision has been the legal anchor of Damagum’s position throughout the crisis.
The PDP Constitution provides that the National Executive Committee and National Convention are the competent organs to appoint or ratify a National Chairman when a vacancy arises mid-term. Damagum’s emergence followed these constitutional provisions, and the courts have not displaced his position — they have, in fact, reinforced it by restoring the status quo ante.
Furthermore, the courts that nullified the Ibadan convention did not install Turaki or any rival as chairman. They simply declared the convention void for procedural non-compliance and preserved Damagum’s existing leadership structure as the valid one pending a fresh, compliant convention.
Reconciliation Efforts Still At Infancy
Meanwhile, political reconciliation efforts between the Turaki-led NWC and the Wike-backed caretaker structures remain at a nascent stage.
Sources close to the Turaki-led faction disclosed that governors loyal to that group, including Bala Mohammed of Bauchi and Seyi Makinde of Oyo, have been holding meetings to develop a position that will be presented to a reconciliation team when it commences work.
However, the reconciliation process has been delayed by the absence of former Senate President Bukola Saraki, whom the Wike faction has insisted must be part of the team. Saraki is reportedly performing the Lesser Hajj and is expected to return to Nigeria on Eid-el-Fitri day.
The Turaki-led faction, which had earlier expressed openness to reconciliation following the Court of Appeal’s advice in the Ibadan Division for parties to explore peace, has set conditions for any settlement. Through its spokesman Ini Ememobong, the faction has insisted that any reconciliation must be based on principles and aimed at strengthening the party rather than weakening it.
“The Peoples Democratic Party, as an opposition party, must offer vibrant opposition and must not become an appendage of the ruling All Progressives Congress,” the faction has stated.
Despite the political manoeuvring and factional disputes, the legal position remains unambiguous. Damagum’s chairmanship is presently sustained by three mutually reinforcing pillars: internal party decisions including NEC’s ratification; court rulings that restored the status quo ante and recognized his leadership structure as the valid one; and INEC’s statutory recognition under the Electoral Act.
This position will remain in force until one of two things happens — either a valid, court-compliant national convention is held under the PDP Constitution and notified to INEC, or a higher court, such as the Supreme Court, issues a contrary final order.
As the PDP faces an increasingly tight electoral calendar heading toward the 2027 general elections — with INEC’s revised timetable requiring parties to submit membership registers between April 1 and 21 and hold primaries between April 23 and May 30 — the question of who legitimately leads Nigeria’s main opposition party carries enormous consequences for the party’s ability to field candidates and mount a credible challenge to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
For now, the law, the courts, and the electoral commission all point in the same direction: Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum is the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
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