Ayodele Bamidele
There are indications that the Nyesome Wike backed Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in Ekiti State has rejected the governorship candidate of the party, Dr Wole Oluyede ahead of June 20 poll.
The rival bloc ably backed by former Governor Ayodele Fayose had last week put in place a parallel state executive council headed by Lanre Omolase.
The PDP camp, which aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, rejected assertions by the Tanimu Turaki-led faction, which is backed by several PDP governors, that it remains the recognised leadership in the state and has produced Dr Wole Oluyede as the party’s flagbearer.
The chairman of the Turaki faction in Ekiti, Tunji Odeyemi, told our Correspondent that the congress organised by the Wike-backed group in the state is illegal and of no effect, insisting that it lacked constitutional backing.
Odeyemi maintained that the executive elected on October 1, 2025, still holds a valid mandate, stressing that no court ruling has nullified its leadership status.
Citing a judgment of the Federal High Court, he said the court had affirmed Oluyede as the duly recognised governorship candidate of the party in Ekiti and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to acknowledge him, adding that the verdict had settled previous disagreements over the ticket.
According to the Turaki camp, allegations of leadership change in the state chapter are baseless, as those behind the recent congress are only attempting to distract the party from its preparations for the forthcoming poll.
Reacting, the chairman of the Wike-aligned faction in Ekiti, Lanre Omolase, argued that the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the Abduraham Mohammed-led National Caretaker Committee, had effectively resolved all factional disputes within the PDP.
Omolase said that following the collapse of the Ibadan convention, the Turaki faction lost its standing, adding that the National Caretaker Committee had since dissolved the state working committee it recognised as improperly constituted.
He further alleged that the earlier state congress conducted by the Turaki group was flawed and merely involved the sharing of positions among loyalists, describing it as an act of impunity.
The Wike-backed leadership insisted that it was lawfully installed by the national caretaker body before conducting its own congress, which produced a new state working committee.
In a statement jointly signed by Omolase and the state publicity secretary, Femi Phillips, the faction faulted the presentation of Oluyede as PDP’s candidate, saying no official organ of the party in Ekiti had processed or endorsed his nomination.
The statement emphasised that the state chapter had not formally received any aspirant for the governorship race, noting that no individual could supersede the party’s constitution and laid-down procedures.
It added that if Oluyede’s candidature had been validly recognised, he would have featured at official party engagements, including the recent inauguration of the state executive committee.
The Wike-aligned group also claimed that there was no documented proof of Oluyede’s involvement with the recognised party structure in Ekiti, particularly after judgments delivered by the Federal High Court in Ibadan and the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The Wike backed faction of the PDP is solely routing for the return of President Bola Tinubu for the second term, while at the state level, it has thrown its support behind Governor Biodun Oyebanji.
