The Peoples Democratic Party, led by National Chairman Abdulrahman Mohammed, has formally adopted Senator Sandy Onor as its consensus presidential candidate for the 2027 general election, in a ceremony held on Tuesday at Wadata Plaza, the party’s national secretariat in Abuja. 

The announcement was made by the Chairman of the PDP Presidential Primaries Collation Committee and former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, following consultations and voice votes conducted among party members across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Ortom, presiding over the collation and presentation of the party’s presidential primary results, put the adoption to a voice vote before the gathered delegates and officials. “Having conducted consultations across the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory,

“I am pleased to formally announce that we have adopted Professor Sandy Onor as the consensus candidate of our great party for the 2027 presidential election,” he declared, with the announcement drawing loud applause from those in attendance.

Onor was subsequently presented with a certificate of return and the party’s flag by the PDP leadership, with National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu leading the formal handover.

Onor, a former senator representing Cross River Central Senatorial District from 2019 to 2023 and the PDP’s governorship candidate in Cross River State in 2023, emerged as the sole presidential aspirant after obtaining his expression of interest and nomination forms at the party secretariat earlier this month. He was the first aspirant to acquire the presidential nomination forms under the current PDP leadership. Two National Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Abdullahi Zuru and Professor Rhoda Habor Gumus, monitored the exercise to ensure procedural compliance.

Speaking after his emergence, Onor framed his candidacy as both a personal conviction and a response to calls from across the party’s structure. He indicated that his administration, if elected, would prioritise rural poverty, which he described as a principal driver of insecurity and economic hardship in Nigeria.

He also addressed the political positioning of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, widely known to be an ally, stating that Wike’s personal alignment with President Bola Tinubu represented an individual constitutional choice that did not constrain the PDP’s independence to field and back its own presidential candidate.

The PDP leadership used the occasion to project an image of renewed unity, with party officials insisting that the months of internal turbulence that had dogged the opposition party were firmly behind them. The party also declared itself the only credible opposition platform capable of unseating the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027, with Onor’s emergence presented as a signal that the PDP had stabilised and was ready to mount a serious challenge for the presidency.