By Kosi Tochukwu
The internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated, with the Kabiru Turaki (SAN)-led faction approaching the Federal High Court, Abuja, over the continued sealing of the party’s national secretariat.
In a suit filed at the court, the faction is seeking an order compelling the Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force to immediately unseal and vacate the PDP national headquarters, as well as all other party offices nationwide.
The motion, filed through lead counsel Chief Chris Uche (SAN), requests a mandatory injunction directing the police to remove all barricades and withdraw from party offices without delay.
The PDP national secretariat was sealed in November following violent clashes between the Turaki-led faction and another faction aligned with Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Tensions escalated when both factions scheduled meetings at the secretariat on the same day, prompting police intervention that included tear gas deployment and the subsequent cordoning off of the premises with barbed wire.
The closure disrupted the Turaki-led National Working Committee’s inaugural meeting at the secretariat. Turaki had been elected national chairman at the party’s November convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, a move rejected by the Wike-aligned faction, citing existing court orders restraining the PDP from holding the exercise.
Ahead of the convention, Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had issued orders stopping the party from proceeding with its scheduled November 15–16 convention. Nonetheless, a High Court in Ibadan later granted an ex parte order permitting the convention to hold. During the Ibadan convention, the party expelled Wike, factional national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, factional chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and eight others over alleged anti-party activities.
In the new suit (FHC/ABJ/CS/252/2025), the PDP, alongside Turaki and the chairman of its Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, is asking the court to restrain the police from further interference in party affairs. The plaintiffs seek an order compelling the immediate removal of all barricades, and unsealing and vacating of the PDP national secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja, and its annex, Legacy House in Maitama, as well as preventing any sealing or restriction of access to PDP offices nationwide during the pendency of the case.
The plaintiffs argue that the police acted without lawful authority when they sealed the offices on November 18, 2025, and have remained in occupation since. An affidavit by PDP national secretary Taofik Arapaja asserts that the party’s elective national convention in Ibadan elected new officers, including Turaki as chairman, and that the Independent National Electoral Commission was duly notified on November 17, 2025.
Arapaja added that the party had merely informed security agencies, including the police and Department of State Services, about an emergency stakeholders’ meeting scheduled for November 18. Instead, a large police contingent, led by the FCT Commissioner of Police, stormed the secretariat, deployed over 200 tear gas canisters, and barred party officials, staff, and visiting governors, including those from Bauchi and Oyo states, from entering.
The PDP argues that the prolonged closure has severely disrupted its operations, including administrative coordination, policy formulation, membership management, and preparations for future elections. The party emphasised that the police, under the Nigeria Police Act 2020, must not act in a partisan manner.
The plaintiffs urge the court to grant the application, stating that the balance of convenience favors the PDP and that monetary compensation would not adequately remedy the damage.
They argue that granting the relief would serve the interests of justice and dispel any perception of court endorsement of the police action.
