The battle for control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a dramatic turn as the Kabiru Turaki-led faction submitted former President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential nomination to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 elections.
The faction said it also submitted the names of its governorship, National Assembly and state assembly candidates — but did so manually after INEC allegedly refused to provide the access codes needed for electronic submission.
The move has further escalated the PDP’s leadership crisis, with the Turaki camp insisting that its candidates were validly nominated under the Electoral Act and warning INEC against replacing its list.
Addressing journalists on Friday, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said the faction went ahead with the manual submission despite INEC’s position that it did not recognise the interim leadership.
According to him, the submitted list was acknowledged by the electoral commission.
Ememobong said the faction had complied with the Electoral Act 2026 and would resist any attempt to substitute the candidates it submitted.
He warned that the PDP faction would explore every legal and constitutional option if INEC publishes a different list.
The PDP spokesman traced the crisis to a Supreme Court judgment concerning the party’s leadership, claiming that the ruling left the party without a legally recognised national leadership.
He said the party’s Board of Trustees and a requisitioned National Executive Committee meeting subsequently moved to constitute the Turaki-led Interim National Working Committee.
But, according to Ememobong, INEC refused to recognise the interim leadership despite being formally notified, forcing the faction to seek judicial intervention.
He also launched a fresh attack on the Federal High Court judgment in the dispute, arguing that it conflicts with earlier decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
Ememobong said the party had appealed the judgment and would challenge what it described as discrepancies between the court’s ruling and its Certified True Copy.
The PDP faction also accused INEC of abandoning the neutrality expected of an electoral umpire.
Ememobong alleged that the commission withheld important information during court proceedings and ignored congresses it had monitored, warning that the development could further damage public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
He went further, alleging that the PDP was the first casualty of what he described as a wider campaign to weaken opposition parties and pave the way for one-party dominance.
According to him, the alleged attempt to dismantle the opposition has now spread beyond the PDP.
Ememobong urged Nigerians to defend multi-party democracy, warning that the alleged slide towards electoral authoritarianism could threaten democratic consolidation.
Despite the legal and political battles ahead, he expressed confidence that the Turaki-led faction would ultimately prevail.
