PDP Was ‘Sold’ to Tinubu and APC Before Wike ‘Organised the Funeral’

• Former senator Dino Melaye has declared that Nigeria’s main opposition PDP is politically dead because the party was allegedly “sold” to Tinubu and the APC.

• Melaye named three PDP officials whom he accused of being responsible for the alleged sale of the party.

• He also claimed that Nyesom Wike later “organised the funeral” after the party had already been “procured.”

• Melaye said his earlier warnings about the PDP’s collapse, which attracted criticism at the time, have since been vindicated.

August 14, () — Former lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye, has alleged that the opposition party, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was effectively “sold” to President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) before former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike moved to “organise the funeral.”

Melaye made the allegation in a snippet from an interview on the Kaa Truth Podcast, released on his official X handle on Friday, August 14, 2026, while reflecting on his earlier declaration that the PDP was politically dead.

In the interview, Melaye stood by comments he made on Arise TV in September 2023, when he declared that the PDP was “dead, buried and cannot rise again.”

Asked what had happened to the party since that declaration, Melaye said the PDP’s collapse was not merely a consequence of its internal crisis but the result of what he described as its sale to the ruling APC.

“It’s obituary. PDP is dead because it was sold,” Melaye said.

When asked who he believed was responsible for selling the party, the former lawmaker named Umar Damagum, Bature, and Samuel Anyanwu, whom he identified as the party’s interim chairman, national secretary and national organising secretary respectively.

According to Melaye, the trio effectively handed the PDP to Tinubu and the APC, paving the way for the party’s subsequent political decline.

“Damagun, Bature, Samuel Anyawu. These three people, the interim chairman, the national secretary and the national organising secretary sold it to Tinubu and APC,” he alleged.

Pdp till we meet again pic.twitter.com/pS3NKfRb01

— Senator Dino Melaye. (SDM) (@_dinomelaye) August 14, 2026

‘Wike Organised the Funeral’ – Dino

Melaye further linked the party’s demise to the role played by Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, who served as governor of Rivers State and became one of the most influential figures in the PDP’s post-2023 crisis.

“PDP was procured before Wike now organised the funeral. That is the truth,” he said.

The comments offer a striking assessment of the PDP’s prolonged internal crisis from a politician who was himself deeply involved in the party and its 2023 presidential campaign.

Melaye also recalled that he had warned about the party’s impending collapse at the time, saying his concerns were dismissed and attracted significant criticism.

“I cried out then, I said it. I was being insulted, I was being called names,” he said.

However, Melaye argued that subsequent developments had vindicated his assessment, pointing to what he described as a pronouncement by the Supreme Court declaring the PDP “dead.”

His comments come amid the PDP’s continuing struggle with internal divisions, leadership disputes and competing political interests, raising fresh questions about the party’s ability to remain a viable national opposition force.

While Melaye’s claims represent his personal assessment of the party’s decline, the allegations against the named PDP officials are serious and would require responses from those accused.

The former lawmaker’s latest remarks are therefore likely to reignite debate over whether the PDP’s troubles are primarily the product of internal sabotage, political realignment or the broader fragmentation of Nigeria’s opposition Politics.