Jegede quits PDP with immediate effect after two Ondo governorship bids. Feature images show the Senior Advocate and his 7 August resignation letter
Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mr Eyitayo Jegede, twice the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ondo State, has resigned from the party with immediate effect in a letter dated 7 August 2026 and addressed to the PDP chairman of Owode/Imuagun Ward 11, Akure South Local Government Area.
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The News Agency of Nigeria obtained the letter on Thursday, 27 August, in Akure. Mr Jegede, 65, wrote: “Kindly take this as a formal notice of my resignation as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, effective immediately. I will be glad if you will kindly acknowledge the receipt of this letter.”
The note gave no reason. Mr Jegede had issued no further public statement by Friday morning.
Mr Jegede served as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under former Governor Olusegun Mimiko from 2009 until July 2016, when he left office to seek the governorship.
He flew the PDP flag in 2016 and again in 2020, losing both contests to the late Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress.
In 2016 the Court of Appeal first had to confirm him as the authentic PDP candidate after a bitter primary fight with Jimoh Ibrahim.
The quiet exit closes a long chapter. Mr Jegede had remained a visible PDP figure after those defeats and once chaired a national convention screening committee. He later said he would not enter the party’s April primary.
In February 2026 scores of his loyalists, led by associate Balarabe Abiodun Akinwunmi, left the PDP for the African Democratic Congress, citing the party’s leadership crisis.
That crisis has hollowed out the PDP nationwide. The party now holds no state governorship after losing Oyo last month. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has already gone, and rival factions continue to trade suspensions.
In Ondo the chapter has watched a former state chairman and a spokesperson walk away in earlier years, while more members have drifted to the APC and other platforms.
Whether Mr Jegede will follow his supporters into the ADC, join another party, or step back from partisan life remains unclear.
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For now the record shows only a spare ward letter and the end of a two decade association with the party that twice made him its candidate for Alagbaka.
