Nine Days After, Police Re-Open PDP’s National Secretariat

PDP National Secretariat, Abuja

After nine days of infighting, the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was yesterday unsealed.

The Guardian Nigeria report continues:

The party had been embroiled in leadership crisis over mounts the national chairman seat.

The Guardian, during a visit yesterday to the edifice, observed that fierce-looking armed policemen who had laid siege to the secretariat to keep people away had disappeared as early at 11:00 a.m.

The Secretary of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who arrived the building around 1:10p.m.,‎ told reporters that the trustees actually asked the police to re-open the secretariat.

“We (BoT) requested police to unseal the place so that staff can resume work. We will return tomorrow (today) to meet with the staff of the party,” he added.

On whether the caretaker committee would resume duty immediately, Maduek‎we noted that the Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi-led interim executive would resume office at a later day.

The reopening of the secretariat is not unconnected with the resolution reached last Thursday by an expanded meeting of the party’s organs, including the BoT, Trustees (BoT), governors, National Assembly caucus, and other stakeholders, which mandated members to withdraw their suits.

Although policemen were still positioned at the gate, staff of the party, who last week were denied entry, however gained, entrance after undergoing security checks.

Same exercise was carried out on reporters who were at the facility before they could go in.

Recall that the party’s convention had nine days ago produced two separate national chairmen in Abuja and Port Harcourt respectively.

A development that led the incumbent, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to initiate litigation, leading to a flurry of suits in the end.