The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appointed Kabiru Turaki as chairman of a 13-member interim National Working Committee (NWC), following internal leadership disputes and a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Turaki’s appointment was announced on Monday at the party’s 103rd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja, with backing from Seyi Makinde.
Other members of the interim committee include Woyengikuro Daniel, Hamza Koshe, Ihediwa Nnabugwu, Isa Abubakar, Okechukwu Daniel, Theophilus Shan, Ini Ememobong, Aribisala Idowu, Bara’u Shafi’i, Ogbu Chinenyenwa, Umar Aji, and Arapaja Taofeek, who will serve as secretary.
The motion for the committee’s appointment was moved by Aziegbemi Anthony.
The development follows a leadership vacuum triggered by a ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which invalidated the PDP’s national convention held on November 15 and 16, 2025 — a convention that had earlier produced Turaki as national chairman.
Last week, Adolphus Wabara announced that the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) had assumed leadership in the interim, pending resolution of the crisis.
In a split judgment delivered on April 30, a majority of the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by the Turaki-led faction seeking to validate the convention.
Justice Stephen Adah, who read the lead judgment, held that the appellants acted in violation of a subsisting order of the Federal High Court, which had restrained the party from conducting the convention.
The case, marked SC/CV/164/2026, originated from a suit filed by Sule Lamido, who challenged the process after allegedly being denied the opportunity to obtain a nomination form to contest for the party’s national chairmanship.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, had initially issued an interim order on November 11, 2025, restraining the PDP from proceeding with the convention, before making it a final order on November 14.
The decision was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on March 9, 2026.
In affirming the lower courts’ decisions, the Supreme Court held that the PDP faction acted in “flagrant disregard” of the court order by proceeding with the convention. It further faulted the appellants for abusing court processes by filing a similar suit before another court of coordinate jurisdiction.
The court also noted that the appellants failed to challenge key findings of the appellate court regarding disobedience to a subsisting court order, leading to the dismissal of the appeal.
