The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), has faulted the creation of a caretaker committee by a faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, describing it as a brazen act of illegality and a violation of party procedures.
In a statement on Monday, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said the announcement of a “National Caretaker Committee” by the Wike-led faction amounted to contempt of court and altered the status of the plaintiffs in an ongoing suit.
PDP governors had endorsed the Ibadan convention of November 16, where Turaki (SAN) and other NWC members were elected for a four-year term. Despite the smooth handover from former Acting Chairman Umar Damagum to Turaki on December 9, Wike and his allies—Mohammed Abdulrahman and Senator Samuel Anyanwu—continued to lay claim to the positions of Acting National Chairman and National Secretary. On Sunday, they went further to appoint themselves and others into a 60-day caretaker committee.
The Turaki-led NWC swiftly rejected the move, insisting the faction lacked the authority to constitute any party organ.
According to the statement:
“The so-called National Caretaker Committee announced by Nyesom Wike and his associates—clearly set up to manage their private political interests—would have gone unnoticed like their dwindling support base, if they had not attempted to disguise it under the name of the Peoples Democratic Party. This is a party that has already expelled them, with documented evidence.”
The NWC stressed that all legitimate organs of the party, including the National Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees, remain fully functional under the leadership of Turaki (SAN). It added that those institutions “are led by dignified individuals who cannot be procured or commodified” by the expelled group.
The party also reminded the public that Wike, through his proxies Abdulrahman and Anyanwu, filed a suit on November 21, 2025, seeking to nullify the Ibadan convention. Their request for an interim injunction was rejected, and all parties were warned against actions that could undermine the court’s judgment. By announcing a “fictitious caretaker committee,” the NWC said, the plaintiffs acted in open defiance of the court.
The statement continued:
“This latest episode is simply another descent into the illegality they have embraced since 2023 in their attempt to cripple the PDP and weaken its role as Nigeria’s main opposition. Their antics have now become a predictable tool in the ruling party’s playbook, weaponised by this Wike-led band of APC apologists.
“The public is already familiar with the comic circus this group has become, each new act outdoing the previous in sheer absurdity.”
