Wike, Turaki factions conflict over Ekiti PDP management, governorship candidate

The Peoples Democratic Party factions loyal to Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, and former Minister Taminu Turaki have clashed over management and the governorship candidate in Ekiti State.

The Turaki-led group claims to be the genuine PDP management within the state and has introduced Wole Oluyede because the celebration’s governorship candidate for the June 20 election. The Wike-backed faction, nevertheless, rejected this, insisting that the genuine PDP construction has not recognised any candidate for the Ekiti governorship.

At a press briefing final week, Turaki group’s State Chairman, Tunji Odeyemi, dismissed the Wike-bloc’s state congress as “unconstitutional and never binding on the celebration’s recognised management.”

“I wish to state clearly that the congress held just lately [by the Wike group] has nothing to do with our management. Our mandate, freely given on October 1, 2025, stays legitimate, and there was no court docket order dissolving it,” Odeyemi stated.

He referenced a Federal Excessive Court docket judgment that affirmed Oluyede because the PDP governorship candidate and directed the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) to recognise him, noting that the ruling resolved earlier disputes over the celebration’s candidate.

Odeyemi accused the Wike-backed group of attempting to distract the celebration from getting ready for the June 20 election, calling their latest congress a “charade.”

The Wike-backed bloc, led by State Chairman Lanre Omolase, countered that the Appeal Court docket judgment recognising solely the Abduraham Mohammed-led Nationwide Caretaker Committee had settled the problem of factionalism throughout the PDP.

“The genuine PDP members in any respect ranges are with the Abduraham Mohammed-led Nationwide Caretaker Committee. Instantly the Ibadan conference collapsed, it meant that nothing was left of the Turaki group,” Omolase stated.

He added that the Wike-led committee had dissolved the Turaki faction’s State Working Committee (SWC) earlier than holding its personal congress the place the present SWC emerged. “From the onset, the Turaki group’s Ekiti SWC was not correctly constituted. What they referred to as state congress in Ekiti at the moment was a charade, the place positions have been merely shared amongst themselves. It was impunity of the best order,” he stated.

The Wike-backed SWC additionally rejected Oluyede’s declare to the governorship candidacy.

In a press release signed by Omolase and Publicity Secretary Femi Phillips confused that the purported candidature of Dr Oluyede has not been introduced to, recognised by, or processed via any duly constituted organ of the celebration.

“The PDP in Ekiti State has not formally acquired any aspirant, not to mention endorsed a gubernatorial candidate. No particular person is bigger than the celebration or its structure. All political ambitions have to be pursued in accordance with established guidelines, pointers, and due course of.

“If such a candidacy had been formally acknowledged, the person involved would have been seen at official celebration capabilities, together with the latest inauguration of the State Govt Committee.

“All through the tenure of the caretaker committee within the state and following the judgments delivered by the Federal Excessive Court docket in Ibadan and the Court docket of Appeal in Abuja, there was no documented proof of Dr Oluyede’s participation, alignment, or formal engagement with the substantive celebration construction in Ekiti State,” the assertion concluded.