‘PDP Will Produce Nigeria’s Next President’, Says Makinde

Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, on Monday, expressed confidence that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will produce Nigeria’s next president, declaring that the party’s current gathering would yield leaders across all levels of government.

“We should write it down somewhere, this gathering will produce House of Assembly members, House of Reps members, will produce senators, will produce governors and will produce the next president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Makinde said.

His remarks came as the PDP, backed by Governor Makinde, appointed Kabiru Turaki as chairman of an interim National Working Committee (NWC) of the party on Monday.

Turaki was named to lead the 13-member interim NWC on during the party’s 103rd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held 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 Taofeek Arapaja, who will serve as secretary.

The motion to appoint the interim committee was moved by Anthony Aziegbemi, the PDP chairman in Edo State.

The development followed a leadership crisis within the party after Adolphus Wabara, chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), announced on Thursday that the BoT had assumed leadership of the party as directed by the Supreme Court.

Wabara said the decision was based on a Supreme Court of Nigeria ruling that invalidated the PDP national convention held on November 15 and 16, 2025.

The invalidated convention had produced Turaki as the party’s national chairman.

In a split judgement delivered on April 30, three out of five justices of the apex court held that the appeal filed by the Turaki-led faction seeking to validate the convention lacked merit.

Justice Stephen Adah, who read the majority decision, ruled that the appellants violated a subsisting order of the Federal High Court restraining them from proceeding with the convention.

The appeal, marked SC/CV/164/2026, arose from a decision by Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who, on November 11, issued a temporary order restraining the party from conducting the convention pending the determination of a substantive suit filed by Sule Lamido.

On November 14, Lifu issued a final order barring the PDP from holding its national convention.

In his judgment, the court held that evidence showed Lamido was “unjustly denied” the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest the position of national chairman, in violation of the PDP constitution and internal regulations.

The ruling was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on March 9.

Dissatisfied, the PDP faction appealed the decision further.

However, in its majority judgment, the apex court held that the appellants acted in “flagrant disregard” of the subsisting court order.

The court said that, instead of complying with the order or appealing it immediately, the party abused the court process by filing a similar case before another court of coordinate jurisdiction.

It also noted that the appellants failed to challenge the Court of Appeal’s findings, which had criticised the party for disobeying a valid court order.

Consequently, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s decision and dismissed the appeal.