State chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, have urged former President Goodluck Jonathan to distance himself from the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the party.
NEWSNGR reports that the chairmen accused the faction of exploiting Jonathan’s name to create the impression that it controls the PDP and has the authority to sponsor candidates for the 2027 general election.
The Turaki-led group had announced Jonathan as its presidential candidate after ratifying his nomination at a special national convention in Abuja.
Although the former president did not attend the convention, his certificate of return was received on his behalf by a member of the House of Representatives from Bayelsa State, Fred Agbedi.
Jonathan has met with members of the faction but has yet to publicly accept or reject the nomination.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, the Chairman of the Wike-backed PDP State Chairmen’s Forum, Austin Nwachukwu, asked Jonathan to clarify his position.
“We call on you, in view of the global image and moral authority you command, to address Nigerians directly and disassociate yourself from the continuous use of your name in this spectacle of macabre dance by expelled PDP members,” Nwachukwu said.
The Imo State PDP chairman alleged that members of the Turaki faction were using Jonathan’s reputation to advance their political agenda.
“It is public knowledge that your name is being used by these shameless people to perpetuate their ignoble activities. This must stop,” he said.
“Silence in the face of such misuse damages not just the party, but your own legacy of peace and statesmanship.”
The Turaki-led group had manually submitted Jonathan’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after claiming that the commission refused to provide the access codes required for electronic submission.
Nwachukwu described the manual submission as a breach of the electoral process.
He also claimed that Turaki and members of the interim caretaker committee had been expelled from the PDP and therefore lacked the authority to act on behalf of the party.
According to him, the faction was conducting “a sustained campaign of impersonation and deliberate distortion of court judgments” to present itself as a parallel national leadership.
Nwachukwu insisted that the PDP had only one legally recognised leadership, headed by Abdulrahman Mohammed as national chairman and Samuel Anyanwu as national secretary.
He urged the party’s National Working Committee to initiate contempt proceedings and other legal actions against the Turaki faction.
