Crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has intensified ahead of the party’s National Elective Convention scheduled for November in Ibadan, Oyo State. The faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has rejected the Southern Zoning Consultative Summit held in Lagos, describing it as illegitimate and not representative of the wider interests of Southern stakeholders.
The Lagos meeting, chaired by Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, was part of ongoing consultations by the PDP zoning committee. The committee, inaugurated on August 14, is expected to recommend how the party’s 19 National Working Committee positions will be shared between the North and South. Present at the summit were serving governors, former governors, party elders, and lawmakers from across the southern region.
Hours before the meeting, however, Wike’s loyalists, including some state chairmen, senators, and members of the House of Representatives, publicly distanced themselves. In a strongly worded statement, they dismissed any resolutions from the Lagos gathering as “neither binding on, nor reflective of the collective will and aspirations of the PDP family across Southern Nigeria.”
The statement, signed by PDP chairmen from Rivers, Abia, Imo, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom States, alongside National Assembly leaders such as House Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda, accused the organisers of holding a secretive meeting without proper consultation. They alleged that several national officers, state chairmen, and senior stakeholders were deliberately excluded, calling the summit “illegal, divisive, and self-serving.”
In response, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde defended the Lagos parley, insisting it was aimed at strengthening the PDP ahead of the Ibadan convention. He explained that the final zoning decision would be taken by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), which is expected to meet on Monday. Makinde said he would not be dragged into personal fights, stressing that his focus remained on party unity.
“Personally, when people go low or go into the gutters, I don’t go with them. Some people are now going into the gutters. We will reach out to them. That is democracy,” Makinde stated. He argued that despite its challenges, the PDP remained a strong force, pointing to the party’s second-place finishes in many constituencies during recent by-elections.
Makinde also dismissed suggestions that the zoning debate was
