Details have emerged from a meeting of Southern stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held on Thursday in Lagos.
The consultative summit, held at the Legend Hotel in Ikeja, drew a delegation of PDP leaders and stakeholders from across the Southern part of the country.
Among those in attendance were the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Adolphus Wabara; Chairman of the PDP National Zoning Committee and Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri; Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke; and Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ossai, who represented Governor Peter Mbah.
Also present were former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; elder statesman, Chief Bode George; Senator Monsurat Sunmonu; alongside 12 of the 17 PDP National Assembly members from the South.
Convened as a consultative summit, the meeting focused on deliberations over zoning arrangements ahead of the party’s forthcoming congresses.
Speaking after the meeting, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde dismissed insinuations of personal animosity with fellow party leaders and appeared to take a hidden swipe at the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
“Personally, when people go low or go into the gutters, I don’t go with them,” Makinde told journalists. “Some people are not going into the gutters. We will reach out to them. That is democracy. I can disagree with people, but there shouldn’t be anything personal here. It should be about what we are giving to Nigerians because they are watching.”
Makinde added that the PDP remained a formidable political force despite recent challenges, pointing to its strong showing in last Saturday’s by-elections.
“In all our states, they showed last Saturday that PDP is not dead. In most other places of the 12 states, PDP came second. It is an indication to us that if we continue to work hard, we can reclaim the confidence of Nigerians,” he said.
The Oyo governor also clarified that discussions on zoning the 2027 presidential ticket were premature, insisting that the immediate focus should be on rebuilding the party’s strength.
“We haven’t even gotten there. We need to have a party first before you start talking about presidential candidates. If we don’t have a party, anything you are trying to do will fall flat,” he explained.
Makinde further said the Lagos meeting was widely represented. He noted the presence of multiple governors, BoT members, senators, and House of Representatives members. The PDP leader, however, admitted that political consultations rarely achieve 100 percent attendance, but stressed that outreach to absent stakeholders was ongoing.
Meanwhile, PDP leaders aligned with the Wike camp had earlier dismissed the Lagos summit as “illegal” and “exclusionary.” In a joint statement, party chairmen from Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers States—Austin Nwachukwu, Abraham Amah, Venatius Ikem, Aniekan Akpan, and Aaron Chukwuemeka—along with National Vice Chairman (South-East), Chidiebere Egwu Goodluck, and House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, announced their withdrawal.
“Decisions reached in secrecy and exclusion cannot and shall not assume the authority of consensus,” the statement declared, accusing the Lagos organisers of sidelining several state chairmen, national officers, and former governors from the South-East and South-South.
The dissenting camp argued that the Lagos meeting was an attempt to pre-empt the work of the Diri-led zoning committee, inaugurated only last week by Acting PDP National Chairman, Umar Damagum. The committee is expected to harmonise positions ahead of the PDP’s elective convention scheduled for November 15–16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
