The factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Caretaker Committee, Abdulrahman Mohammed, has said the party passed through difficult internal challenges in 2025.
Mohammed said that, without doubt, 2025 was a testing and refining period for the PDP.
Speaking while delivering his welcome address at the 105th National Executive Committee meeting held on Monday in Abuja, Mohammed lamented that some respected members veered away from established procedures and due process in 2025.
He said: “I warmly welcome you all to this important meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party. It is with deep gratitude and optimism that I welcome you not only to today’s NEC meeting, but also into the year 2026.
“I extend to every one of you my heartfelt wishes for a happy new year, a year of renewed strength, unity, and progress for our party and our country.
“Let me, at the very outset, commend you most sincerely for your resilience, your patience, and your unwavering commitment to the rule of law and respect for due process.
“In the face of severe trials and provocations, members of this Committee and leaders across our party stood firm. You chose the difficult but honourable path of legality, constitutionalism, and institutional discipline. History will record that when it mattered most, you placed the survival and integrity of the party above personal ambition and temporary convenience.
“The year 2025 was, without doubt, a testing and refining period for our party. It was a year in which the PDP passed through intense internal challenges, largely occasioned by actions of some of our respected members who regrettably veered away from established procedures and due process.”
He noted that the PDP was exposed to enormous judicial and institutional challenges.
“These actions exposed our party to enormous judicial and institutional challenges. However, as with all great institutions, the PDP did not collapse under pressure. Rather, the party was refined, strengthened, and reoriented by the trials it faced.
“Recent events have clearly vindicated the position taken by this National Executive Committee. The judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, which declared the Ibadan Convention null and void, has provided much-needed legal clarity and institutional certainty.
“More importantly, that judgement has conferred existential credibility on our great party as presently constituted, led by my humble self, Alhaji Abdulrahman Muhammed, as Chairman, National Caretaker Committee and my brother, the very distinguished Senator Samuel Anyanwu, as National Secretary. This outcome did not come by accident,” he added.
