The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued expulsion certificates to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and others expelled at the party’s last national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to a statement posted on PDP’s X handle after the ceremony, the certificates were issued at a meeting of the NWC on Tuesday in Abuja, where the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, formally transferred national leadership to Senator Kabiru Turaki.
Recall that PDP had, at the November 16 convention, ratified Wike’s and others’ expulsion over alleged anti-party activities.
Addressing journalists after the NWC meeting, Turaki said the committee reviewed matters relating to members expelled by the convention.
He said, “We have taken note of the fact that Nigerian law frowns on dual membership of political parties, and so we have sought to make it easy for them.
“Now that they are no longer members of our party, and now that the National Convention, which is the highest decision-making organ of our party, has expelled them, we have decided to issue them certificates of expulsion.
“So that, when they go to register with other political parties in Nigeria, they will show these certificates as proof that they are no longer members of the PDP, and so those parties will not accuse them of trying to belong to more than one political party.”
According to him, the certificates have been dispatched by courier to the individuals: Nyesom Wike, former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose; Senator Samuel Anyanwu; Umaru Bature; Kamarudeen Ajibade (SAN); Abdurahman Muhammad; Senator Mao Ohuabunwa; Austin Nwachukwu; Abraham Amah Nnanna; George Turna; and Chief Dan Orbih.
Turaki said the step was necessary to inform Nigerians and relevant institutions, including INEC and security agencies, of the affected individuals’ status.
He said the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and other government agencies should “know that these people are no longer members of our party. They have been expelled. They remain expelled. We have now certified their expulsion, and these certificates have been sent to them.”
The chairman added that the party would soon issue public disclaimers, noting that anyone dealing with the expelled individuals “does so at his or her own risk.”
“We hope that members of the PDP in Nigeria and the diaspora will know that the party has once again gotten rid of the cankerworms that have been afflicting and creating problems for us in our activities,” he said.
Turaki added that the PDP is now focused on rebuilding and preparing to offer Nigerians “credible leadership” ahead of 2027.
The expulsion has been controversial, as it defied court orders prohibiting the convention until ongoing legal disputes over state congresses were resolved.
The Wike-loyal faction, operating under figures like embattled National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu and factional Chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, rejected the Ibadan convention as illegitimate and held its own parallel National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on November 18.
The group also announced the expulsion of several opponents, including Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara), former Board of Trustees Chair Adolphus Wabara, Turaki himself, and others like Chief Bode George, for similar anti-party charges and violations of court orders.
