Armed police officers on Wednesday sealed the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.
The officers, stationed around the building, barricaded the premises with iron barbed wire, preventing party officials and visitors from gaining access.
The opposition party’s new leadership had earlier postponed its inaugural National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting from Tuesday to Wednesday (today) due to the chaos that erupted at the secretariat.
Kabiru Turaki, the newly elected national chairman of the PDP announced the postponement while addressing governors, members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), and other stakeholders who had already gathered for the meeting.
Mr Turaki’s emergence as Chairperson at the Ibadan convention was rejected by a faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, which argued that the convention violated an existing court order restraining it.
The Wike-backed faction, which has the embattled National Secretary of the PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, as member, recently appointed Mohammed Abdulrahman as its Chairperson.
During the Ibadan convention, the party expelled Messrs Wike, Anyanwu, Abdulrahman and eight other members of the faction over allegations of anti-party activities.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the likelihood of a confrontation between Mr Turaki’s leadership and the Wike-aligned faction, as both groups scheduled meetings at the same venue, the PDP national secretariat, on Tuesday.
The two sides eventually clashed while attempting to access the NEC hall. Police fired teargas to prevent some officials from entering the premises.
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Amid the chaos, Mr Wike, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, and Chairperson of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, engaged in a heated verbal exchange. The two governors asked the FCT Commissioner of Police, Dantawaye Miller, to order Mr Wike out of the secretariat, insisting he was no longer a member of the PDP.
As the arguement continued, police fired teargas both inside and outside the secretariat.
Mr Turaki has since assumed office after his team took control of the secretariat from the faction expelled at the Ibadan convention.
