Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has said the national convention organised by a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ibadan worsened the party’s internal crisis, despite repeated warnings against holding the event.
The convention, led by the Kabiru Turaki faction, took place in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November 2025 and has since sparked a series of legal disputes, further dividing the party.
The situation escalated on March 9 when the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld an earlier Federal High Court ruling that restrained the PDP from conducting the convention.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam held that the party breached constitutional provisions guiding the conduct of its convention. The court found that the PDP failed to give proper notice to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and did not conduct congresses in the required number of states before the event.
Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Saraki said he had strongly advised against proceeding with the convention. He explained that the PDP reconciliation committee, which he chaired at the time, alongside the party’s board of trustees, recommended the formation of a caretaker committee instead.
According to him, the party leadership ignored the advice, leading to deeper factional divisions.
Saraki said the convention was ill-timed, noting that key internal disputes had not been resolved beforehand. He added that conventions should serve as a platform to affirm consensus decisions, not to expose unresolved disagreements.
He maintained that repeated warnings were issued to halt the convention, stressing that adopting a caretaker arrangement would have helped the party avoid its current crisis.
