Ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party National Elective Convention scheduled for November in Ibadan, Oyo State, the camp loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has rejected the Southern Leaders’ Zoning Consultative meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday.
This is as a reliable source within the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) told The PUNCH that the PDP Governors’ Forum will convene in Zamfara State on Saturday.
According to the source, the governors are expected to arrive in Gusau, the state capital, on Friday before holding deliberations the next day on pressing issues that must be resolved to ensure a smooth national convention in Ibadan.
It had been reportedthat Wike’s camp is resolute in its bid to prevent PDP’s November convention from taking place, citing disputes over the zonal leadership of the South-South and South-East.
Meanwhile, Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, other governors and their allies are committed to ensuring that the convention proceeds as planned in line with the party’s constitution.
Amid these tensions, the zoning committee, led by Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, continued its consultations across all regions as promised at its inauguration on August 14 and consequently held a meeting with Southern stakeholders in Lagos.
The 44-member committee is expected to propose a zoning formula for the 19 NWC positions between the North and the South at the 102nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting next Monday.
At the meeting, the NEC will decide whether to adopt, reject, or amend the committee’s recommendations.
However, just hours before the Lagos Southern Zoning talks commenced, a few state chairmen, former governors, National Assembly members, and other key stakeholders aligned with Wike’s camp and publicly distanced themselves from the gathering.
In a statement, on Thursday, jointly signed by party chairmen from Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States, and National Assembly leaders and other stakeholders, the PDP leaders dismissed ‘any resolutions, communiqués, or outcomes” purportedly emanating from the meeting as “neither binding on, nor reflective of the collective will and aspirations of the PDP family across Southern Nigeria’.
They condemned the Lagos gathering, described as the “PDP Southern Zoning Consultative Summit,” insisting it was convened without proper consultation.
‘The attention of the undersigned state chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party from the South and some critical stakeholders has been drawn to a meeting “Nicodemously” summoned in Lagos today, 21st August 2025, by some persons purporting to do so on behalf of PDP members of the South tagged ‘PDP Southern Zoning Consultative Summit,’ convened by the Admin Secretary, Zoning Committee of the PDP, at the behest of the Chairman Zoning Committee (H.E. Senator Duoye Diri) at the Legend Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos’.
The said that the meeting, tagged a summit, was allegedly convened in the name of the three geopolitical zones of Southern Nigeria — South-East, South-South, and South-West.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, we categorically dismiss any resolutions, communiqués, or outcomes purportedly emanating from this meeting as neither binding on, nor reflective of the collective will and aspirations of the PDP family across Southern Nigeria. Decisions reached in secrecy and exclusion cannot and shall not assume the authority of consensus’, the statement also read.
The statement noted that the meeting, allegedly summoned by the Zoning Committee’s Administrative Secretary at the behest of Chairman Diri, was ‘deeply disturbing’ because several state chairmen, national officers, principal lawmakers, and former governors were excluded.
‘It is highly regrettable and indeed deeply disturbing that such a meeting was convened without the courtesy of inviting several state chairmen from the South-East and South-South, as well as the duly elected National Secretary and Deputy National Legal Adviser of our great party.
‘Even more troubling is the inexplicable exclusion of several national officers, eminent leaders, and critical stakeholders of the PDP. Such a brazen disregard for established structures and statutory organs of the PDP not only offends the spirit of collective decision-making but also risks undermining the very foundation upon which our party was built’, they said.
The signatories, including the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Kingsley Chinda; Senators Mao Ohuabunwa, George Sekibo, Mike Nnachi; and former National Secretary Onwe S. Onwe, warned that the Lagos parley was ‘premature and targeted at protecting the interest and selfish ambition of a select few’.
They further urged the PDP NWC and the NEC to disregard any outcome of the meeting, declaring it ‘illegal and divisive’.
They said: ‘We call on the National Working Committee, the National Executive Committee, and all stakeholders of the party to disregard any outcome of the said meeting, which is not only illegal but divisive.
‘Take notice that where any iota of regard is given to the outcome of the purported meeting, we shall not hesitate to take appropriate steps in line with our party’s constitution to resist the same with full force’.
