BREAKING: PDP’s Turaki assumes office as party crisis deepens
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kabiru Turaki, officially took office on Tuesday at the party’s National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
He was accompanied by Governors Seyi Makinde and Bala Mohammed.
After assuming office, Turaki expressed gratitude to PDP leaders for their “resilience” and “courage” in standing firm against efforts to destabilise the party.
“I want to thank all of you for your resilience, for your courage, for your resoluteness in this struggle to take over our party, our property, and in doing so, to save democracy,” he stated.
Turaki recounted that for several hours, his supporters faced confrontations with “renegade members” expelled during the party’s national convention in Ibadan.
“For the past seven hours, Nigerians are living witnesses to the struggle we’ve been engaged in with those renegade members of our party that were expelled in our national convention in Ibadan. They came here with armed thugs, as we predicted, to disrupt our meetings, but we were able to contain them effectively,” he said.
The Ibadan convention last Saturday led to the expulsion of notable figures such as FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, Austin Nwachukwu, among others, due to alleged anti-party activities.
In response, the factional NEC loyal to Wike expelled Bode George, former BoT Chairman Adolphus Wabara, and Turaki himself, heightening tensions ahead of Tuesday’s parallel meetings at Wadata Plaza.
Turaki announced that his faction had now fully secured the secretariat.
“Now, we have driven them out of the secretariat, and as you can see, I have entered my office. I have assumed leadership as the elected chairman.”
He emphasized that the internal power struggle was far from over.
“This struggle is a continuing one. We will remain relentless; we will continue to fight,” he affirmed.
Turaki also criticized the Federal Government, accusing a cabinet member of orchestrating the disruption.
“The president should call his minister to order. The kind of conduct that the minister got himself engaged in this morning is unbecoming. How can a serving minister lead thugs to disrupt a legally arranged meeting?” he asked.
He warned that the confrontation could have had deadly consequences.
“If we had not exercised restraint… There would have been bloodshed here. We were tear-gassed — more than 50 canisters were shot at us — but we remain relentless,” he added.
Turaki cautioned that his faction would mobilize supporters nationwide if such attacks persist.
“Should this continue, I will not hesitate to call all members of PDP in Nigeria to assemble here.”
He also appealed to the international community, saying,
“You’ve seen what is happening… the attempts now openly being made to destroy and stifle democracy. We will defend democracy. We are prepared to lay down our lives to nurture this nascent democracy.”
Turaki praised PDP members for maintaining composure amid what he called severe provocation.
“This shows that we in PDP are peace-loving and law-abiding, but that does not mean we will not defend our integrity or our lives if threatened,” he said.
Tuesday’s events followed a tense morning at Wadata Plaza as both factions—Turaki’s and Wike’s—arrived for separate NEC and BoT meetings, resulting in a standoff that required significant security presence.
