Less than 24 hours after release of the result of Saturday’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election in Ekiti State, the entire exercise has run into a major controversy with allegations of forgery of official signatures.
Although the embattled factional national chairman of the party and the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba declined to respond to The Nation’s enquiry on Sunday, other party officials alleged that the document on which the result was stated bears clear and weighty elements of forgery.
National Secretary, Senator Samuelnyanwu and the National Organizing Secretary, Capt Umar Bature (rtd) stated that their signatures on the PDP’s official ‘Ekiti State Result Sheet’ for the Saturday governorship primary election were forged.
Both officials belong to the pro-Wike faction of PDP which claims to have suspended Damagum while Damagum’s faction backed by some PDP Governors also claimed to have suspended Anyanwu and Bature.
“It is just another forgery,” Senator Anyanwu asserted in a text message sent in response to our correspondent.
When asked to confirm whether his signature on the document was genuine or not, Umar Bature emphatically denied being a signatory to the document.
“We have not signed on any result sheet since a Supreme Court ruling; ask them well because I did not sign on any such document,” he asserted.
Chairman of the Ekiti PDP Governorship Primary Election Committee, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who represents Gombe North announced that a medical expert, Dr. Wole Oluyede won with 279 votes to defeat Funso Ayeni who polled 239 votes and Funmilayo Ogun who scored 17 votes.
Altogether, 535 delegates drawn across the 177 wards in the State were reported to have participated in the election.
Supporters from both factions of the PDP are already attacking one another on social media with Damagum loyalists asserting that result sheets and party membership cards had been pre-printed in large numbers months before the party’s current crisis while loyalists of Wike/Anyanwu are emphasising that there is mischief if the ‘conjured signatures’ of party officials whom the Damagum camp claimed to have suspended are now being used in a desperate effort to add legitimacy to such process.
“In their statement titled “Forgery Is A Crime: Our Party Must Not Be Built On Falsehood And Deception’, supporters of Wike/Anyanwu alleged that such forgery is an extension of Damagum faction’s false claims that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has endorsed the Damagum faction’s purported suspension of PDP National Secretary, National Organising Secretary, National Legal Adviser, and Deputy National Legal Adviser
“No wonder some of their paid data urchins have been busy peddling unfounded propaganda that INEC had recognised or confirmed the so-called suspension of the four national officers of our great party; then suddenly, the appearance of this very document (dated 8/11/2025) surfaced, bearing the same names and signatures of those who were allegedly suspended.
“This development has left every loyal member of the party stunned and filled with genuine questions regarding the credibility, authenticity, and legality of the documents currently being circulated; this incident wholesomely validates the warning issued a fortnight ago by our National Secretary, who alerted the public that some cohorts had forged his signature and dispatched a document to INEC without his consent,” they alleged.
