The newly elected national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), has declared that the party’s legitimate leadership under him has reclaimed control of its national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, in Abuja, following a violent confrontation allegedly instigated by expelled party members of the party, aided by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday.
Addressing journalists and members of the party at the PDP headquarters on Tuesday, Turaki said the leadership had “taken back the party and its mandate” after hours of tension and attempts by expelled National Secretary Senator Samuel Anyanwu and his supporters to disrupt a scheduled National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.
“Your Excellency and other distinguished leaders of the PDP, I want to thank all of you for your resilience and resoluteness in this struggle to take over our party, our property, and in doing so to save democracy,” Turaki said.
“For the past seven hours, Nigerians are living witnesses to the struggle we’ve been engaged in with those renegade members of our party that were expelled at our national convention in Ibadan. They came here with armed thugs, just as we predicted, to disrupt our meetings. But God, so kind, we were able to contain them effectively. Now, we have driven them out of the secretariat, and as you can see, I have entered my office and assumed leadership as the elected national leader.”
Turaki accused Minister Wike of personally leading thugs to attack the secretariat in what he described as “a brazen assault on democracy.”
“The President should call his minister to order. The kind of conduct the Minister of the FCT engaged in this morning, leading to this afternoon, is unbecoming. How can a serving minister lead thugs to come and disrupt a legally arranged meeting?” he queried.
The PDP chairman alleged that the attackers were accompanied by security personnel who used tear gas against party members.
“If we had not exercised restraint, if we had not controlled our members and leaders, there would have been bloodshed here,” he said.
“We were tear-gassed, more than 50 canisters were fired at us, but we remained relentless. Should this continue, I will not hesitate to call all members of the PDP to this place.”
Reiterating the party’s commitment to peace and democracy, Turaki said the PDP would continue to act as the “vanguard of democratic stability” while warning that it would not fold its arms in the face of intimidation.
“We will defend democracy. We shall continue to act as the vanguards of democracy. And like I’ve said, we are prepared to lay down our lives for the purpose of watering and nurturing this nascent democracy that our forefathers fought hard to give us,” he vowed.
Turaki also called on the international community to take note of what he described as “a coordinated attempt to stifle democratic opposition” in Nigeria.
“You’ve seen what is happening, the attempt now openly being made to destroy and stifle democracy. We call on the international community to come to our aid,” he appealed.
The PDP chairman commended the presence and composure of party governors, former ministers, lawmakers, and other stakeholders who joined him at the secretariat during the confrontation.
“This shows that we in the PDP are peace-loving people and will continue to be law-abiding. But that does not mean that if people try to touch our integrity or our lives, we will not take advantage of our constitutional rights to defend ourselves,” Turaki added.
