Wike insisted PDP must not field 2027 presidential candidate as condition to end party crisis – Umar Sani

Umar Sani, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has alleged that Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike set conditions to end the party’s lingering internal crisis, including a request that the party should not field a presidential candidate in 2027.

Mr Sani spoke in an interview on Arise Television News on Monday regarding the recent expulsion of Mr Wike and 11 others during the PDP’s controversial convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Stating that several reconciliation efforts failed, he noted that the expulsion of Mr Wike and other members “carrying the party on their shoulders” was “better late than never.”

“Even when we were saying we were going to resolve this thing as a family, it became very clear that there was no way we could resolve it as a family because the BOT, in their last resolve to settle the matter, set up a reconciliation committee.

“The committee approached Wike, and one of his (Wike’s) conditions was that we (PDP) must agree that we’re not going to field a presidential candidate in 2027; that is the only condition he would allow, or that this is a fight to finish,” Mr Sani said.

Mr Wike’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, did not respond to calls for comments on Mr Sani’s claims.

The PDP had been engrossed in an internal crisis prior to the 2023 general elections. However, the party has sunk deeper into crisis after the Damagum-led faction proceeded with the party’s national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, expelling Mr Wike, former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, the party’s national secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and its national legal adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN).

Also axed were the PDP national organising secretary, Umar Bature; the acting national chairman of the Wike faction of the party, Mohammed Abdulrahman; the chairman of the faction’s newly inaugurated Board of Trustees (BoT), Mao Ohuabunwa; Austin Nwachukwu; George Turner; Abraham Amali; and Dan Orbih. Mr Fayose was, at the time of his expulsion, celebrating his 65th birthday in Lagos.

However, two state governors elected on the PDP platform—Adamu Fintiri (Adamawa) and Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau)—immediately dissociated themselves from the expulsion, warning it would deepen the party’s crisis.

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were not at the convention, apparently in obedience to two rulings of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to stop it.

Several prominent party members were also absent. Among them were former Senate President Bukola Saraki and former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido.

Former Special Duties Minister Kabiru Tanimu Turaki from Kebbi State, who had earlier been tipped for the position of national chairman by the divided PDP Governors’ Forum, was elected unopposed. He became the only aspirant, following the announcement that his co-aspirant, Senator Yakubu Lado from Katsina State, had stepped down.