Wike camp tightens grip as PDP caretaker team scraps zonal organs, moves convention by a day
by: Oluwaseun M. Lawal
The mood in Abuja on Tuesday felt tense but strangely calm, like everyone already knew something big was about to drop. Inside a quiet conference room, the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Caretaker Working Committee – the faction openly leaning toward Nyesom Wike – sat, argued, calculated. When they finally stepped out, the message was clear enough: structures would fall, dates would shift, and the balance of power in the party was being quietly rearranged.
Facing reporters, the committee’s Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, tried to sound formal, but you could hear the politics between his lines. He said the caretaker team had reviewed “critical issues” and arrived at decisions that will shape the party’s immediate future. Simple words, big moves. First, the PDP national convention. NEC had only just fixed it for March 28th and 29th. That was yesterday. Barely settled. But after another round of internal consultations, Jungudo explained, the timetable was taken back to the table and slightly tweaked – the convention will now hold from March 29th to 30th instead. Just one day shift, but in party politics, even 24 hours can mean room to seal new deals, lock down delegates, or fix messy compromises.
Then came the real shocker. The caretaker committee, still in the same breath, announced that some of the party’s major zonal and state structures had been dissolved. No long drama. No long explanation. The North-West Zonal Committee? Gone. The South-West Zonal Committee? Also dissolved. Plateau State Working Committee? Removed too. These are not small units; they are the legs through which a national party walks into elections. Removing them this close to a convention send a strong signal about who is in charge, and who is no longer trusted to manage the ground game.
Jungudo tried to soften the blow, explaining that interim leadership would soon be announced for the affected zones and state. In other words, the party won’t be left without coordinators for long – just not the old faces. The congress timetable for wards, zones and states, he added, still stands as earlier approved by NEC. That part, at least, is not changing. On paper, it looks like continuity. In reality, new hands will be the ones implementing it.
He also hinted that the planning for the national convention itself is not a one-man show. Before naming the Convention Planning Committee, the caretaker leadership will “consult widely,” he said. That phrase – consult widely – sounds neat and official, but in political speak, it usually means a lot of phone calls, late-night meetings and bargaining behind closed doors.
By the time Jungudo wrapped up, he insisted these were the key resolutions and the main takeaways from the meeting. No shouting. No open confrontation. But beneath the calm language, the story was obvious enough: the Wike-aligned caretaker faction is resetting the chessboard inside the PDP, one committee, one date, one structure at a time.
