The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is spiraling further into chaos as the faction loyal to former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has outrightly rejected the South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee announced by the Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee (NWC). This latest rift, reported exclusively by The PUNCH on March 10, 2025, underscores the party’s fractured leadership and intensifying internal power struggles. With the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting postponed yet again—this time to May 15—the PDP’s ability to unify its ranks appears increasingly tenuous.
Dan Orbih, the PDP National Vice Chairman for the South-South, alongside an anonymous Wike ally, dismissed the NWC’s actions as unauthorized and illegitimate. Orbih accused PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba of issuing statements without NWC approval, calling the caretaker committee a fabricated ploy to mislead South-South leaders. “There was no meeting of the NWC where such a conclusion was reached,” Orbih insisted, urging party members to ignore Ologunagba’s “embarrassing” pronouncements. The anonymous source echoed this, alleging that some NWC members are bent on sabotaging the PDP and scapegoating Wike for the fallout.
The controversy traces back to a disputed zonal congress held on February 22, 2025, in Calabar, despite a Rivers State High Court injunction barring it. Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, backed the event, where Orbih was declared National Vice Chairman with 174 votes. He hailed the South-South as the PDP’s bedrock, insisting no further congress was needed. However, the Damagum-led NWC and four South-South governors—absent from Calabar—disavowed the congress, appointing Emma Ogidi as caretaker chairman on March 7 and scheduling a new congress for April 12. This move has fueled accusations of constitutional overreach and personal vendettas.
Ologunagba defended the NWC’s decision, stating it was communicated to relevant parties and aligned with the PDP’s stance, though he declined to engage Orbih’s allegations directly. Meanwhile, a source from the anti-Wike faction, loyal to Governors Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde, claimed the caretaker committee was endorsed by the four South-South governors to rectify the “illegal” Calabar congress. “Orbih selected his loyalists… and announced himself the winner,” the source argued, justifying the NWC’s intervention to avert a leadership vacuum.
The PDP’s woes are compounded by the NEC meeting’s repeated delays—originally set for March 13 after a year of postponements since April 2024—now pushed to May 15 due to ongoing litigation over the national secretary position. The Conference of Professionals in the PDP praised the caretaker committee as a constitutional stabilizing measure, but Wike’s camp sees it as a power grab. As legal battles and factional clashes persist, the PDP’s once-formidable unity hangs in the balance, with its South-South stronghold now a battleground.
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