Just-In: Police Seal PDP Secretariat Amid Deepening Leadership Crisis

Just-In: Police Seal PDP Secretariat Amid Deepening Leadership Crisis

To prevent another physical clash of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) factions, police operatives sealed the party’s National Secretariat at Wadata Plaza in Abuja on Wednesday.

This action came a day after a violent confrontation between two rival factions turned the opposition party’s headquarters into a battlefield.

The clash erupted on Tuesday when supporters of the faction led by the newly elected National Chairman, Kabiru Saminu Turaki, confronted members loyal to the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike. Both groups had arrived at the secretariat to hold parallel meetings of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees.

The situation quickly descended into chaos, with security operatives struggling to maintain order amidst heated arguments, pushing, and commotion. To disperse the warring factions, police fired teargas into the crowd, an action that reportedly affected high-profile figures including Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.

In a swift retaliatory move, the Wike-loyalist NEC faction convened and ratified the expulsion of key figures from the opposing camp. Those expelled include Governors Makinde, Mohammed, and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, alongside party elders like former BoT Chairman Senator Adolphus Wabara and Chief Bode George.

The faction also expelled the very man they clashed with, National Chairman Kabiru Turaki.

This expulsion is the latest volley in a war that intensified after last Saturday’s PDP national convention in Ibadan, convened by the Turaki-Makinde faction. That convention had suspended Nyesom Wike and ten other prominent members for alleged anti-party activities, accusing them of attempting to “destabilise the party structure.”

The police closure of the secretariat now stands as a physical symbol of the deep divisions paralyzing the nation’s main opposition party.