The Peoples Democratic Party’s national leadership crisis has spread to Ekiti State, with the rival factions loyal to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike and former Minister Tanimu Turaki clashing bitterly over both the party’s leadership structure in the state and who is the authentic PDP candidate for the June 20 governorship election.
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The Turaki-led group has presented Dr. Wole Oluyede as the PDP’s governorship candidate, citing a Federal High Court judgment that affirmed his candidacy and directed INEC to recognise him. The Wike-backed faction has rejected Oluyede entirely, insisting that the authentic PDP structure in Ekiti has not received, recognised, or processed any governorship candidacy.
With the Ekiti governorship election barely three months away, the internal war threatens to cripple the opposition party’s ability to mount a credible challenge in a state currently governed by the All Progressives Congress.
At a press briefing, the Turaki group’s State Chairman, Tunji Odeyemi, dismissed a congress recently held by the Wike-backed faction as unconstitutional and not binding on the party’s recognised leadership.
“I want to state clearly that the congress held recently has nothing to do with our leadership. Our mandate, freely given on October 1, 2025, remains valid, and there has been no court order dissolving it,” Odeyemi declared.
He referenced a Federal High Court judgment that affirmed Oluyede as the PDP governorship candidate for Ekiti and directed INEC to recognise him, arguing that the ruling resolved earlier disputes over the party’s candidate for the June 20 election.
Odeyemi accused the Wike-backed group of attempting to distract the party from preparing for the election, describing their recent state congress as a “charade” designed to create confusion rather than advance the party’s electoral prospects.
The Wike-backed faction, led by State Chairman Lanre Omolase, fired back with equal force, arguing that the Court of Appeal judgment recognising only the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee as the legitimate national leadership of the PDP had effectively settled the question of factionalism within the party.
“The authentic PDP members at all levels are with the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee. Immediately the Ibadan convention collapsed, it meant that nothing was left of the Turaki group,” Omolase stated.
He disclosed that the Wike-led National Caretaker Committee had dissolved the Turaki faction’s State Working Committee before holding its own congress, which produced the current state executive committee that he leads.
Omolase went further, alleging that the Turaki faction’s state executive was never properly constituted in the first place. “What they called state congress in Ekiti at that time was a charade, where positions were merely shared among themselves. It was impunity of the highest order,” he said.
In a joint statement signed by Omolase and Publicity Secretary Femi Phillips, the Wike-backed State Working Committee categorically rejected Oluyede’s claim to the governorship candidacy.
“The purported candidature of Dr. Oluyede has not been presented to, recognised by, or processed through any duly constituted organ of the party,” the statement read.
“The PDP in Ekiti State has not formally received any aspirant, let alone endorsed a gubernatorial candidate. No individual is greater than the party or its constitution. All political ambitions must be pursued in accordance with established rules, guidelines, and due process.”
The faction pointed to what it described as the absence of any documented evidence of Oluyede’s participation in official party activities as proof that his candidacy lacks institutional backing.
“If such a candidacy had been formally acknowledged, the individual concerned would have been visible at official party functions, including the recent inauguration of the State Executive Committee,” the statement noted.
“Throughout the tenure of the caretaker committee in the state and following the judgments delivered by the Federal High Court in Ibadan and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, there has been no documented evidence of Dr. Oluyede’s participation, alignment, or formal engagement with the substantive party structure in Ekiti State,” the faction concluded.
The dispute is complicated by the existence of competing court orders that both factions claim support their positions.
The Turaki faction relies on a Federal High Court judgment that specifically affirmed Oluyede as the PDP governorship candidate for Ekiti and directed INEC to recognise him — a judicial determination that, if it remains valid, would appear to settle the question of the party’s candidate regardless of internal disagreements.
The Wike faction, however, relies on the broader Court of Appeal judgment that recognised the Abdulrahman Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee — previously known as the Wike-backed structure — as the legitimate national leadership of the PDP, arguing that this superior court ruling supersedes any Federal High Court orders obtained by the rival faction.
The question of which court order takes precedence — a specific order on the Ekiti candidacy or a general order on the party’s national leadership — is likely to be litigated further as the election approaches.
The Independent National Electoral Commission faces a significant dilemma. With two rival factions presenting different candidates and leadership structures, and with competing court orders supporting each side, INEC will need to determine which faction it recognises for purposes of the June 20 governorship election.
Under the Electoral Act, INEC is required to deal with the party leadership that it recognises as legitimate. The commission’s decision on which PDP faction to recognise — and consequently which candidate to place on the ballot — could determine the outcome of the election before a single vote is cast.
The Ekiti clash is a direct product of the PDP’s unresolved national leadership crisis. The party has been split between the faction backed by FCT Minister Wike, which controls the National Caretaker Committee led by Abdulrahman Mohammed, and the faction loyal to former Minister Tanimu Turaki, which emerged from the contested Ibadan national convention in November 2025.
The Court of Appeal’s March 9, 2026, ruling upheld the Federal High Court’s nullification of the Ibadan convention and preserved the Damagum-Anyanwu leadership structure — which is aligned with the Wike faction — as the valid national leadership pending a fresh convention.
However, the Turaki faction maintains that its structures at the state level remain intact and that specific court orders obtained in individual states, such as the Federal High Court judgment on Oluyede’s candidacy in Ekiti, continue to have legal force.
With the June 20 election approaching rapidly, the PDP’s ability to present a united front in Ekiti depends entirely on the resolution of this leadership dispute — either through the courts, internal reconciliation, or INEC’s determination of which faction it will deal with for purposes of the election.
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