Former Benue State Governor and ex-Senator, Gabriel Suswam, has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), one of Nigeria’s major opposition parties, saying the party has remained trapped in unresolved internal crises.
Suswam, a long-time figure in Nigerian politics in Africa’s most populous country, announced his decision in a resignation letter dated Wednesday, 4 February 2026. The letter was addressed to the PDP chairman in Mbagber Council Ward, in Logo Local Government Area, Benue State, a state in north-central Nigeria.
The letter later surfaced online after Suswam’s Chief of Staff, Moses Ukeyima, shared it on Facebook.
In the letter, Suswam said he was leaving because the party had failed to settle deep internal disagreements affecting its leadership and direction. He said the disputes had touched the party’s structure, discipline, and ideology, and had dragged on without a clear, credible solution.
“I write to formally resign my membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with effect from the date of this letter,” he stated.
Suswam recalled that the party helped shape his political career over several years, giving him opportunities to serve in different roles, including as a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country’s National Assembly, as governor of Benue State, and later as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He said he remained grateful for the trust and chances he received through the party.
However, he said the PDP, which he described as once known for internal unity and democratic practices, had become weakened by constant disputes that have not been properly resolved. Suswam added that several attempts at reconciliation had been made over time, but the party had continued to return to crisis without lasting stability.
He said he could no longer justify staying in a party that, in his view, no longer matched his beliefs or offered a stable platform for meaningful public contribution. He added: “I believe that political parties must serve as platforms for ideas, discipline, and constructive engagement, not arenas of endless internal warfare.”
Suswam said he was stepping aside, while still hoping the party could eventually find the resolve to address what he called its internal contradictions.
As of the time this report was filed, the PDP leadership had not publicly responded to Suswam’s resignation.