Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has blamed the ongoing turmoil within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the controversial Ibadan national convention, insisting the crisis could have been avoided if party leaders had heeded repeated warnings.
Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Saraki said, “I screamed, I shouted at that time and said, look, don’t let us go and do this convention. The best thing for us was to have a caretaker committee.”
Saraki, who chaired the PDP reconciliation committee at the time, explained that the party entered the convention without resolving critical internal disputes, including incomplete congresses in several states and disagreements over the zoning of party offices.
“The purpose of going to Ibadan was for everyone to be on board and agree on what we were going to do. When you go to conventions, it should be affirmation. You should have resolved issues behind the scenes,” he added.
According to Saraki, ignoring these gaps directly triggered the current legal battles and factional splits within the party. “We said, ‘Don’t go to Ibadan. Don’t go.’ If we had listened, we would not have this crisis today,” he said.
He further highlighted the efforts of his committee in holding the party together, mediating among governors, former governors, and other stakeholders to maintain unity.
“We were the last party that stayed together without being divided into factions. We avoided all the booby traps along the way,” Saraki said.
The Ibadan convention, held in November 2025 by a faction loyal to Kabiru Turaki, has since become the epicenter of legal disputes.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja recently upheld a lower court ruling restraining the PDP from conducting the convention, citing procedural violations, including the failure to notify the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Saraki warned that if the lingering crisis is not urgently addressed, it could weaken the PDP ahead of upcoming elections.
