A faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) backed by Seyi Makinde has appointed Kabiru Turaki as chairman of an interim national working committee (NWC).
Gatekeepers News reports that Turaki was named to head a 13-member interim NWC on Monday during the party’s 103rd national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
Other members of the committee include Woyengikuro Daniel, Hamza Koshe, Ihediwa Nnabugwu, Isa Abubakar, Okechukwu Daniel, Theophilus Shan, Ini Ememobong, Aribisala Idowu, Bara’u Shafi’i, Ogbu Chinenyenwa, Umar Aji, and Arapaja Taofeek, who will serve as secretary.
The motion for the appointment of the interim committee was moved by Aziegbemi Anthony.
Leadership Crisis Deepens After Supreme Court Ruling
The development comes amid an ongoing leadership crisis within the PDP following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Nigeria that invalidated the party’s national convention held on November 15 and 16, 2025 — a convention that had produced Turaki as national chairman.
Last week, Adolphus Wabara announced that the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) had assumed leadership in the wake of the judgment.
In a split decision delivered on April 30, three of five justices of the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by the Turaki-led faction seeking to validate the convention.
Reading the lead judgment, Stephen Adah held that the appellants acted in violation of a subsisting order of the Federal High Court, which had restrained the party from proceeding with the convention.
Court Faults PDP for Disobeying Orders
The case originated from a ruling by Peter Lifu, who on November 11 issued an interim order stopping the convention pending the determination of a suit filed by Sule Lamido.
On November 14, Lifu granted a final order restraining the PDP from conducting the convention, ruling that Lamido had been “unjustly denied” the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest for national chairman, contrary to the party’s constitution.
That decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on March 9.
However, the PDP faction proceeded with the convention despite the court order — a move the Supreme Court described as being in “flagrant disregard” of due process.
Justice Adah noted that rather than comply with or promptly appeal the order, the party filed a similar case before another court of coordinate jurisdiction, amounting to an abuse of court process.
The apex court also observed that the appellants failed to challenge key findings of the Court of Appeal regarding their disobedience to the subsisting order.
Consequently, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling and dismissed the appeal.
