Crisis In PDP: Battle Lines Drawn Over 2027 Presidential Ticket

The internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its 2027 zoning arrangement has deepened, as key Southern stakeholders have openly disassociated themselves from a meeting slated for today in Lagos.

Party leaders—including state chairmen, former governors, serving and former National Assembly members, as well as ex-members of the National Working Committee (NWC)—dismissed the Lagos gathering as “illegal” and devoid of legitimacy.

In a strongly worded statement, Southern PDP leaders insisted that any resolutions or communiqués emerging from the Lagos meeting “cannot be binding, nor do they represent the collective will and aspirations of the PDP family across Southern Nigeria.”

They emphasized that “decisions reached in secrecy and exclusion cannot and shall not be taken as consensus.”

The statement, jointly signed by Imo State Chairman Austin Nwachukwu, Abia State Chairman Abraham Amah, Cross River Chairman Barr. Venatius Ikem, Akwa Ibom Chairman Rt. Hon. Aniekan Akpan, and Rivers State Chairman Aaron Chukwuemeka, also had the backing of National Vice Chairman (South-East) Hon. Chidiebere Egwu Goodluck, House of Representatives Minority Leader Hon. O. K. Chinda, as well as Senators Igwe Nwagu, Mao Ohuabunwa, George Sekibo, Mike Ama Nnachi, and several other prominent figures.

The statement, titled “Re: Purported Meeting of PDP Southern Zoning Consultative Summit”, described the Lagos meeting—convened by the PDP Zoning Committee’s Administrative Secretary on behalf of its Chairman, Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa—as a “nicodemous” exercise.

According to the leaders, the so-called “summit,” scheduled for the Legend Hotel, Ikeja, was wrongly staged in the name of the South-East, South-South, and South-West geopolitical zones.