PDP Crisis Deepens: Wike Withdraws from Party Agreements, Blames Makinde, Mba for Betrayal

Summary

• Nyesom Wike accuses Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde of betraying party agreements and causing instability in the PDP.
• Wike reveals that peace efforts, including meetings in Lagos and Abuja, failed due to repeated breaches of trust.
• He asserts that Seyi Makinde and Enugu State Governor Peter Mba violated a gentleman’s agreement by undermining PDP’s National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.
• The Minister cites the illegal cancellation of the North-Central zonal congress and interference with INEC processes as evidence of the crisis.
• Declaring his withdrawal from all previous agreements, Wike vows to continue the fight for justice within the party.

Abuja, Nigeria — The crisis rocking Nigeria’s main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), took a dramatic turn on Saturday as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, announced his withdrawal from all peace agreements previously reached with fellow party leaders.

In a statement titled “PDP Crisis: My Position,” Wike accused key party figures, especially Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Governor Peter Mba of Enugu State, of serially violating agreements meant to foster unity in the party. He described the PDP’s post-2023 general election journey as a slide from “one part of a slippery precipice to another,” plagued by “dishonesty and lack of trust.”

According to Wike, initial reconciliation efforts began with a meeting of the G5 in Lagos, where he directly confronted Makinde over his alleged failure to honour internal agreements.

A follow-up meeting involving high-profile party members, including Governors Bala Mohammed, Umaru Fintri, and former Senate President Bukola Saraki, led to resolutions affirming Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the PDP’s National Secretary and demanding the withdrawal of various legal actions affecting Rivers State.

However, Wike claims these resolutions were promptly disregarded. “Before the Bukola Saraki Reconciliation Committee could even begin its work, the gentleman’s agreement we reached was already being crudely violated,” he said, citing Makinde and Mba’s role in pushing for a different candidate, Ude Okoye, to replace Anyanwu, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling.

He also decried an attempt to legitimize the Deputy National Secretary’s role as acting National Secretary, the issuance of contradictory party letters, and the cancellation of a zonal elective congress in Jos due to INEC’s non-recognition of improperly signed documents.

Highlighting his longstanding commitment to the party since 1998, Wike expressed frustration at what he sees as betrayal by those he helped get elected. “I have not made any personal demands on any of them and I would never do so,” he said.

The former Rivers State governor concluded by saying that he no longer has faith in the current leadership’s sincerity and has chosen to fight on for justice.

With Wike’s latest stance, the PDP’s internal conflict appears far from resolution, raising questions about the party’s stability ahead of upcoming elections.