ABUJA — The Peoples Democratic Party’s latest internal rupture has spilled into the open again, with the Tanimu Turaki-led interim leadership accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of trying to hijack the party and frustrate its plan to present former President Goodluck Jonathan as its 2027 presidential candidate.
The faction says it manually submitted Jonathan’s name, alongside governorship, National Assembly and state assembly candidates, after claiming INEC denied it access to the electronic portal and later acknowledged receipt of the documents.
At the centre of the storm is a credibility fight that goes far beyond one nomination list. INEC’s current chairman is Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, who was sworn in on 23 October 2025, and the Turaki camp’s accusations amount to a direct challenge to the neutrality of the election umpire at a time when the 2027 race is already being shaped by legal warfare, factional control and public distrust.
The legal backdrop is equally damaging for the faction. On 17 July 2026, the Federal High Court in Abuja struck out the suit filed by the Wabara-led Board of Trustees seeking recognition of the Turaki interim National Working Committee. Justice Salim Ibrahim held that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing and that the court had no jurisdiction.
The judge also found that the plaintiffs failed to prove INEC had recognised the interim leadership, and said the case had become “academic”, noting evidence that the rival convention was monitored by INEC.
Despite that setback, the Turaki camp says it has not retreated. Ini Ememobong, the faction’s National Publicity Secretary, argued that the judgment was inconsistent with earlier appellate and Supreme Court decisions, and said the group had already filed an appeal. He also alleged irregularities in the Certified True Copy of the ruling, insisting that the written version did not fully reflect what was delivered in open court.
That is why the language coming from the faction has become increasingly combative. Ememobong says the party’s fight is about preserving the PDP from being reduced to an “appendage of the ruling party”, and he accused INEC of suppressing material facts in court, refusing to acknowledge congresses the commission allegedly monitored, and keeping the party out of the digital submission process.
The faction also warned that any attempt to publish candidates submitted by any other group would “deepen public concerns” about INEC’s neutrality.
The political significance is obvious. INEC has, according to earlier reports, recognised the rival PDP bloc aligned with the Wike camp, which means the Turaki faction is trying to force its way back into the electoral process through a combination of litigation, manual submission and public pressure.
In effect, the PDP is fighting two battles at once: one over who truly controls the party, and another over who has the right to place names on the 2027 ballot.
For Goodluck Jonathan, the matter revives an old national obsession: whether his name is being used as a unifying symbol or a weapon in a deeper struggle for party supremacy. In the reports reviewed, he has not issued a fresh public acceptance that settles the question decisively, leaving the Turaki faction’s claim in the political and legal grey zone that now defines the PDP’s 2027 preparations. Until the courts and INEC speak with finality, the party’s presidential ticket remains both a legal dispute and a test case for Nigeria’s opposition politics.
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