The battle over the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may have shifted decisively after key actions by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were interpreted within the party as confirmation of the Kabiru Turaki-led National Working Committee, NWC, as the structure the Commission recognises in practice.
Vanguard learnt that a series of recent developments, from INEC’s physical monitoring of the Osun governorship primary to its rejection of a letter from the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led group seeking to postpone the Ekiti congresses and governorship primary, have all but removed any doubt about where the Commission’s institutional recognition currently sits.
According to a senior PDP sources who understand the party’s internal workings, these events have made the picture far clearer than the public back-and-forth suggests.
“From where we sit inside the party, this whole argument about legitimacy shouldn’t even exist. The Turaki-led NWC is the one INEC recognises, that’s the simple truth,” an insider said.
According to the source, INEC’s presence at the Osun primary, monitored by five officials, and the acceptance of notices signed by the Turaki-led NWC amounted to a practical endorsement of the leadership that emerged from the December 8 convention.
“Even the official notice for the Osun governorship primary, which INEC physically monitored with five officials present, was signed by the Turaki-led team. That’s not hearsay; everyone saw what happened in Osogbo on Tuesday,” the insider added.
The controversy had deepened after the Anyanwu-led group wrote to INEC announcing a postponement of the Ekiti primary. However, the Commission refused to act on the letter because it was not signed by the party chairman and secretary it officially recognises.
“What happened with the Ekiti issue is actually very straightforward. Anyanwu’s camp wrote to INEC claiming they had postponed the primary, but the letter didn’t meet basic requirements, it wasn’t signed by the chairman and secretary that INEC officially recognises. Naturally, INEC said they couldn’t act on it. Simple,” he explained.
The source also explained that the party had already acknowledged INEC’s earlier letter rejecting the Anyanwu group’s notice to postpone the Ekiti congresses and governorship primary, adding that they even have photos and documents to back this up.
“Then, a few days later, the Commission tried to distance itself from the version of the letter they had sent and which we had already acknowledged. But we have the photos showing they wrote it and transmitted it to us. It wasn’t even something meant for the press, so how it leaked out, we honestly don’t know,” he said.
Another insider further disclosed that INEC had privately impressed upon the PDP the urgency of conducting the Osun primary within the legal window to avoid a scenario in which the party would be left without a candidate.
“To be frank, INEC was even the one nudging the NWC to conduct the Osun primary quickly. They didn’t want us missing the legal window, because that would have left the party without a candidate, and imagine the signal that would have sent ahead of 2027,” he said.
On the issue of competing blocs, the source dismissed suggestions that the PDP currently has factions, insisting that the situation falls far short of what the party defines as a factional split.
“And this talk about ‘factions,’ let’s be serious. You don’t just wake up and declare that A, B and C have formed a new bloc. It doesn’t work like that in the PDP. The only time we truly had a faction was when those five governors walked out at Eagle Square before the 2015 elections. A faction emerges at the convention, physically, when people who are in attendance. walk out and set up their own convention and structures. None of that happened here. So, technically speaking, there is no faction in the PDP today,” he said.
The party now awaits the judgment of the court in Ibadan on the legality of the December 8 convention, a ruling expected to provide formal clarity on the leadership question.
“The court in Ibadan will deliver judgment next week. Let’s allow the judiciary to speak. But as far as the internal mechanics of the party and INEC’s actions are concerned, the situation is already very clear,” one of the sources said.
