The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)<\/strong>, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), has stated that despite the expulsion of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and his loyalists from the party, he still regards the former Rivers State Governor as a friend.<\/p>\n Turaki, speaking in an interview on the Nigeria Right Now Show hosted by Dickson Iregbu, also disclosed that the PDP has constituted a formidable legal team to reclaim the mandates of the 16 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who recently defected.<\/p>\n While stressing that he does not deny his friends, Turaki drew a firm line regarding Wike\u2019s party status, noting that the decision of the party\u2019s highest organ, the National Convention, is final.<\/p>\n He said:\u00a0\u201cFor me, I honestly don\u2019t like speaking about personalities. But the situation that we have found ourselves in now and relative to the question is such that I would have to take exceptions to that. Now, my friend and very good friend Barr Nyesom Wike\u2026. He is my friend. I don\u2019t deny my friends, he has been my colleague, he has been a very good friend but he is no longer a member of the PDP.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He added that the expulsion can only be overturned by God, regretting that the expelled persons chose to \u201challucinate and deceive others\u201d over their exit.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t break the rules of the union and you continue to say you must be a member. Things are not done that way in a decent society. And PDP is a decent organisation<\/em>,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n Reacting to the mass defection of lawmakers in Rivers State, the Chairman confirmed the party\u2019s immediate legal strategy to challenge the move.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe have raised a legal team to challenge the seat of the 16 members who defected last week in Rivers State.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Regarding the defection of the Rivers and Osun State governors, Turaki admitted they have an \u201cinalienable right\u201d to leave the party but stressed the need for \u201cmoral considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n He lamented that the PDP had done so much for them, adding that leaving the party with \u201cignominy and impunity\u201d would make those in their new party \u201cmindful of their character.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically addressing the crisis surrounding Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, Turaki accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of instigating the problem by using a serving Minister to destabilize the PDP.<\/p>\n He, however, expressed regret that Governor Fubara eventually sought refuge in the same party that caused the crisis.<\/p>\n The party chairman stressed that the exit of governors will not affect the party\u2019s overall strength, which he said is drawn from the people.<\/p>\n He acknowledged past mistakes, saying: \u201cWe have learnt our lessons. We have made mistakes\u2026 This is a new sheriff in town. We will take the party back to the people<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Turaki also disclosed that the party has gone to court to seek the reopening of the PDP\u2019s sealed national secretariat.<\/p>\n On speculations regarding the 2027 presidential ticket and the possible return of former President Goodluck Jonathan or Peter Obi, Turaki maintained that the decision would be left to the people, though he confirmed he remains in touch with both leaders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a9 2025 Abia Radio News, a division of Tee Global Innovataions. Contact us via [email\u00a0protected]<\/strong><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), has stated that despite the expulsion of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and his loyalists from the party, he still regards the former Rivers State Governor as a friend. Turaki, speaking in an interview on the Nigeria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":237979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[594,2466,220,251,274],"class_list":["post-238186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-goodluck-jonathan","tag-kabiru-taminu-turaki","tag-nyesom-wike","tag-pdp","tag-peter-obi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Wike-to-Turaki.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}