It was a full-blown showdown at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat on Tuesday, November 18, as Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde faced off against embattled Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike and Samuel Anyawu in a dramatic struggle for control of the opposition party’s headquarters in Abuja.
In the buildup to the event, Tanimu Turaki, the new National chairman of the PDP elected by the Bala-Makinde faction of the party, on Monday, November 17, requested security protection from the Commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dantawaye Miller, ahead of the party’s inaugural National Working Committee (NWC) meeting scheduled for Tuesday at the party’s National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
Similarly, the rival Wike-Anyawu faction simultaneously issued a notice of NEC and Board of Trustees (BoT), fixing their own gathering for the same date, same time (10 a.m.), and the same venue. Turaki would later describe this move as “a deliberate attempt to cause confusion and breach the peace.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, dozens of people gathered close to the party National Secretariat as of 8:am with heavy security presence encircling the surroundings of the Wadata Plaza. The ICIR observed hundreds of heavily armed police officers mounted at different locations across party’s national secretariat and nearby buildings, including the Sky Memorial Plaza.
In several corners around the same location, The ICIR saw individuals suspected to be hired thugs lurking as if waiting for order to storm the PDP building. Some of them were seen with daggers, while others smoked Indian hemp.
A small group of supporters, fewer than 50, marched opposite the Wadata Plaza with placards reading “Turaki Must Go.” They accused the newly elected factional national chairman of emerging through a process they claimed fair. In other fliers sighted by The ICIR, the supporters believed to be loyalists of Wike waved a big banner in solidarity with the FCT minister.
The peaceful gathering of rival supporters soon spiraled into pandemonium, prompting police officers to fire tear gas, which further escalated the crisis.
The chaos soon led to both groups accusing of police bias and further exposed the PDP’s deepening internal fractures.
‘No convention in Ibadan, just a Christmas carol’
Addressing journalists around 10:00 am, former National Secretary Anyanwu, who was already in the building, said his suspension was ‘laughable’, insisting he remained the PDP National Secretary until December 8.
Recall that the party had in a convention held in Ibadan on November 15 expelled several prominent figures, including Anyanwu, Wike, former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose over alleged gross anti-party activities.
Consequently, Turaki was elected the new chairman.
Reacting to this on Tuesday, Anyanwu dismissed the Ibadan meeting that dissolved the National Working Committee, stating that no legitimate convention occurred and that due process was completely ignored.
“As the national secretary of the party in our constitution, it was very clear that for every convention, the national secretary will state the affairs of the party in the convention. Two, every communication from the convention on the committee is communicated to the members of the party by my office. Three, there should be a one day communication… that I am going to hold a convention,” he said.
Anyanwu maintained that the individuals that announced his suspension had no such power, adding that the moves by the party’s acting chairman, Umar Damagum, were null and void.
According to him, Damagum had already been suspended and therefore had no moral or legal standing to act.
Crisis erupts
Following his address around 10:55am, the atmosphere changed when Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde arrived with their supporters, attempting to take control of the building where a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting was expected to hold.
Although the police had allowed them to enter the building, some persons, later found out to be bouncers dressed in black attempted to block their entry.
The ICIR heard the bouncers saying ‘they will only allow them in with order from the above.’ But they were soon overpowered by the governors’ security details and aides.
This triggered confrontations that set off the teargassing by police and some individuals identified as the Wike-faction.
Tear gas, clashes…
During the chaos, The ICIR observed how the Wike-factional members were beaten, manhandled, and chased out of the NWC meeting hall.
Police fired multiple rounds of tear gas, and at times hitting journalists and party members as they struggled to control the surging crowds.
While the police claimed they were targeting “suspected thugs,” the faction led by the newly elected chairman, Kabiru Turaki, accused the officers of ‘molesting’ its members and aiding Wike’s entry into the building.
The ICIR reports that although Makinde and Bala temporarily succeeded in pushing out Wike’s loyalists from the NEC hall area, the group became strong again when Wike arrived around 11:20 a.m.
The two governors, alongside Turaki and their elected National Secretary, physically blocked the minister from entering until police fired more tear gas to disperse the crowd, clearing a path for the minister’s convoy to gain entrance into the building.
Turaki accuses police of sabotaging peace, seeks Trump’s intervention
Amid the tension, the newly elected PDP chairman condemned the police response and accused security agents of shooting and tear-gassing members of his faction.
He said, while addressing the press for the second time, that he and his members including the two governors present were molested and harassed by the police in an attempt to allow Wike’s entrance into the building.
“Our serving and former governors are here. Our members of the National Assembly are here. Our members of the Board of Trustees are here. And you have seen how they are now granted access to the minister of the FCT, a person that has been declared a personal non-grata in the PDP, a person that has been expelled, to come in.
“They have tear-gassed us and tear-gassed even our governors, who are under the constitution… Some of our boys, some of our members who have come here to attend meetings have been shot by the police,” he said.
He further called on the United States President Donald Trump to “save democracy in Nigeria,” alleging threats to lives and political freedom.
Turaki declared that he and his colleagues were “ready to lay down their lives” to defend their mandate and prevent the party from being ‘hijacked.’
Bala Mohammed accused police of molesting him, Makinde
On his part, Bala Mohammed claimed the Oyo State governor and himself were physically harassed, despite their constitutional protection.
“Some imposters who have been expelled by the convention, which is the highest decision organ of the party, came to cause commotion. And you can see the minister of the FCT coming himself, in person, being backed by the police. We are surprised because, at the point when the police allowed us in, our chairman praised them for impartiality. But here we are. We are here to sit in, to see what will happen.
“We have been teargassed and molested in spite of our immunity and whatever we have as leaders in our own right with our chairman. It is for the nation to gaze at the kind of democracy we have, the kind of leadership we have.
A clash that lasted nearly six hours
By 2pm, The ICIR reported that the PDP secretariat experienced repeated waves of tear gas, with police officers chasing journalists and party members away from the building and its surroundings.
Although Wike stayed in his car for over two hours at the PDP secretariat, his presence caused a standstill as leaders of the other faction refused to leave until the FCT minister exited the premises.
Bala, while addressing the police, asked the officers to intervene in removing the minister from the building, but that proved unsuccessful.
Wike eventually left at 2:06 p.m., allowing Bala, Makinde, and Turaki to re-enter the main building briefly before also departing around 2:39 p.m.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M