The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crisis took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as the party’s newly appointed chairman, Kabiru Turaki, delivered a blistering response to the defiant posture of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, following his suspension from the party.
Speaking during a hard-hitting interview on Channels Television, Turaki invoked a controversial legal analogy — the offence of suicide — to drive home his message: no individual, no matter how powerful or influential, owns the PDP or is above party discipline.
Turaki was reacting to Wike’s fiery declaration that he would not allow “newer members” of the party to push him out of a political structure he claimed to have helped build.
But the PDP chairman was unsparing.
According to Turaki, Wike lacks the moral standing to claim permanent ownership of the party, having allegedly played a central role in the removal of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, a founding member of the PDP, not only as national chairman but also from party membership at the ward level.
> “The simple truth,” Turaki said, “is that Wike was one of the people responsible for the removal of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu — not just from the office of national chairman, but even from membership of the party in his ward.”
He stressed that Ayu was among the founding fathers of the PDP, yet was pushed aside without hesitation.
Turaki then deployed a striking metaphor to underline his argument:
> “If you are in a house and you say that the architect who designed it and the builder who built it can be removed by you — someone who was merely an early occupant — how then can you turn around and claim that a person who comes to renovate that same house does not have the power to remove you?”
Escalating his rhetoric, Turaki warned that the PDP would not stand by while anyone attempts to destroy the party from within.
> “Once you decide to say, ‘I want to kill this party,’ we will not allow it. We simply cannot.”
He then delivered the statement that has since sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s political space:
> “There is what is called the offence of suicide. If you succeed in killing yourself, you’re gone. But if you fail in the attempt, the government will punish you.”
Turaki explained that the analogy was deliberate — to show that founding status or past contributions do not grant immunity to anyone bent on undermining the party.
> “It does not mean that because you are a founding father of the PDP, you have the right to kill it,” he declared.
The remarks signal a deepening power struggle within the PDP and set the stage for an intense showdown between party leadership and one of its most influential political figures — a battle that could shape the party’s future ahead of looming national political realignments.
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