Peoples Democratic Party National Chairman, Tanimu Turaki, has issued a direct challenge to those claiming to lead a rival faction of the PDP, insisting that any group without state chairmen behind it “does not exist.”
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, December 10, during a meeting attended by 29 PDP state chairmen, Turaki dismissed the purported faction linked to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, describing its promoters as outsiders seeking relevance.
He declared, “Outside there, some people who claim to be members of our party, but who indeed the whole world knows are not members of our party, claim that they have what they call a faction.”
Turaki argued that the physical presence of nearly all recognised state chairmen was proof of where the PDP’s legitimate authority resides.
“If all the state chairmen are here with us, then who is it that is not with us? If all the state chairmen are supporting us, then who, sincerely speaking, can be fighting us?”
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The tension stems from the decision of Wike’s allies, Mohammed Abdulrahman and Senator Samuel Anyanwu, to insist they remain Acting National Chairman and Acting National Secretary.
Despite a smooth transition from Umar Damagum to Turaki on December 9 and the Ibadan convention that elected new leadership, the group announced a 60-day caretaker committee on Sunday.
Turaki said the party governors and state chairmen were fully involved in the NWC’s decisions, adding that the real power of the PDP rests in its structures, not in political grandstanding.
He told the room, “These are known faces; these are veterans in their own right, and they are here physically, not virtually. People now know where the leadership of PDP is, and people know who the true leaders of the party are.”