At last, the Nigeria Police Force has seal off the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This followed hours of stand off by principal actors in the party’s leadership crisis.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police Command had deployed truck loads of policemen to the secretariat to forestall breakdown of law and order, as the two factions laying claim to the leadership of the party planned to hold meetings in the secretariat at the same time.
The faction loyal to the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, had taken over the secretariat early in the morning, and began accreditation for the Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC).
Around 11 am, the other faction came accompanied by the Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed, his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde and the newly elected National Chairman Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, drove in and chased them out of the PDP NEC Hall where they were preparing to hold the meeting.
They held press conference and announced the postponement of the inaugural meeting of the newly elected National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, “because the environment is not conducive for the meeting to hold today.”
They were about to drive out when the FCT Minister, Wike arrived.
For over one hour, none of them refused to leave the secretariat despite appeal by the FCT Commissioner of Police.
At about 12:45 PM, police used teargas canisters to drive everybody out of the secretariat before locking it up.
