By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Factional governorship candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State, Mr. Julius Udayi, is leveraging the recent Court of Appeal judgment on the Osun State governorship election to assert his candidacy.
Udayi, who spoke with newsmen on Friday in Calabar, after concluding a statewide consultation tour of 18 local government areas, said he remains the authentic and bona fide governorship flag-bearer of the PDP in the state.
He said it became necessary to speak in order to correct “the wrong narrative being peddled by some self-imposed persons parading themselves as PDP candidates” in Cross River.
He said that the protracted leadership crisis rocking the PDP has been settled by the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on August 13, 2026. He explained that the court upheld the nomination of Adebayo Olugbenga Adedamola as the authentic candidate of the PDP for the Osun election.
He said, “The court held that Mr. Adedamola was validly nominated and presented by the Kabiru Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party and consequently directed INEC to immediately include the PDP logo on the ballot.”
He argued that by that judgment, the Turaki-led leadership has been affirmed as the legitimate faction of the party.
He added, “It is from the Turaki-led leadership which the Court of Appeal has adjudged to be the legitimate faction that I, Julius Udayi, was nominated and presented as the bona fide governorship candidate for the PDP in Cross River State.”
He accused loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of attempting to cause a breach of peace by parading themselves as candidates of the “Wike faction.”
