The Peoples Democratic Party bloc, backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the group loyal to the governors, have disagreed over the party leadership and governorship candidate in Ekiti State.
While the Tanimu Turaki-led group loyal to the governors said it was the authentic PDP leadership in the state and had produced the party’s governorship candidate for the June 20 governorship election in the person of Dr Wole Oluyede, the Wike-backed bloc dismissed the claim, adding that the authentic PDP structure had not recognised anyone as its flagbearer for the Ekiti election.
The state chairman of the Turaki group, Tunji Odeyemi, at a press briefing last week, dismissed the Wike bloc’s state congress, describing it as “unconstitutional and not binding on the party’s recognised leadership.”
Odeyemi had stated, “I want to state clearly that the congress held recently (by the Wike group) 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.”
He also referenced a Federal High Court judgment which affirmed Oluyede as the PDP governorship candidate in Ekiti State and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise him, adding that the verdict had resolved earlier disputes over the party’s candidate.
The Turaki-led PDP group dismissed claims of leadership change within the party in Ekiti, describing those behind the recent congress as self-seekers out to distract attention from the party’s preparations for the June 20 governorship election in the state.
But the state chairman of the Wike bloc, Lanre Omolase, said in a chat on Saturday that the Appeal Court judgment, which recognised Abduraham Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee (Wike group), had closed the issue of faction in PDP.
Omolase said, “The authentic PDP members at all levels are with the Abduraham Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee. Immediately, the Ibadan convention collapsed, and nothing was left of the Turaki group.
“That is the situation in Ekiti here. Even before that judgment, the Abduraham Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee had dissolved the SWC of Ekiti.
“From the onset, the Turaki group’s Ekiti SWC was not properly constituted. What they called the state congress in Ekiti at that time was a charade, where positions were merely shared among themselves. It was impunity of the highest order.
“Based on that, the national caretaker committee dissolved them and installed us as caretaker before we had our congress recently, where we emerged as SWC.”
The Wike-backed bloc took a swipe at Odeyemi for parading Oluyede as the PDP governorship candidate, whereas he was not recognised in that capacity by any level of the party.
In a statement signed by the Chairman, Omolase and Publicity Secretary, Femi Phillips, made available in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, the party stressed that “As a matter of record, the purported candidature of Dr Oluyede has not been presented to, recognised by, or processed through any duly constituted organ of the party.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
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