Armed policemen on Monday morning took over the Wadata Plaza, the headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, amid tension over the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) Meeting expected to hold today.
The police disallowed members of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) including Maina Chiroma from entrance into the premises of the secretariat.
The police denied the BoT members from holding their meeting at the Wadata Plaza. The meeting was to precede the expanded caucus meeting.
A former National Secretary of the PDP, Umar Tsauri, told Channels Television that the police stopped the BoT members, saying they are acting based on an “order from above”.
The policemen mounted guard at the gate of the NEC hall, preventing members of the PDP BoT from gaining access to the venue of their meeting.
The displeased BoT members later left the secretariat.
Another official of the party, who spoke to Channels Television’s reporter off camera, said that the police were deployed to stop the proposed NEC Expanded Caucus Meeting.
Though some staff members of the party were initially allowed to go into the premises of the secretariat without any resistance from the police, they were later sent out. Journalists were also been asked to leave the premises of the secretariat.
Some policemen were seen cordoning off Dalaba Street, which is the road leading to Wadata Plaza.
The PDP has been embroiled in an internal crisis which has lingered for years. The crisis has resulted in frequent postponement of the party’s NEC meeting.
The NEC meeting was postponed recently, prompting the party’s leadership to meet with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, announced the postponement of the NEC meeting in Abuja last week but the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP insisted that the party’s 100th NEC meeting would proceed as scheduled on Monday, June 30, 2025.
Denouncing Damagum’s pronouncement, the NWC said that only the NEC had the power to take such a decision.
One of the major contending issues exacerbating the main opposition party’s crisis remained the National Secretary position which both Samuel Anyanwu and Sunday Ude-Okoye had laid claim to.
Also in his press briefing last week, Damagum declared that Anyanwu has been reinstated by the party as its National Secretary, a decision the NWC disputed.
The tussle for the party’s secretary position has been the subject of multiple court cases, with the Supreme Court delivering a judgment in March that both contending parties have interpreted in their favour.
Last week, Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja fixed September 22, 2025, for hearing in another suit on the authentic National Secretary of the party.
