…The barricading of the secretariat with barbed wire stopped the Turaki-led National Working Committee from convening its rescheduled inaugural meeting.
ABUJA, NIGERIA- The iNews Times | The Kabiru Turaki (SAN)-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking the court to order the Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force to immediately unseal and vacate the party’s national secretariat and other PDP offices nationwide.
The application, contained in a Motion on Notice filed by the plaintiffs through their lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), seeks a mandatory injunction directing the police to remove all barricades, unseal the premises and withdraw from the PDP national headquarters.
The PDP national secretariat was sealed in November after violent clashes erupted between two opposing factions of the party, one led by Turaki and the other loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The crisis followed plans by both groups to hold separate meetings at the party headquarters on the same day. Police intervened, firing tear gas during the confrontation, after which the premises were locked and barricaded.
The barricading of the secretariat with barbed wire stopped the Turaki-led National Working Committee from convening its rescheduled inaugural meeting.
Turaki was elected national chairman at a national convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November.
However, the faction aligned with Wike dismissed the convention, insisting it breached existing court orders barring the PDP from conducting the exercise.
Earlier, Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had barred the party from holding its national convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2025. However, a High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State, later granted an ex parte order allowing the convention to go ahead.
At the Ibadan convention, the party announced the expulsion of Wike, its embattled National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, the Wike-aligned factional chairman, Mohammed Abdulrahman, and eight others over alleged anti-party activities.
Meanwhile, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/252/2025, filed by the PDP along with its newly elected National Chairman, Turaki, and the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, the plaintiffs are seeking an order restraining the police from invading, sealing, occupying or restricting access to any of the party’s offices across the 36 states of the federation, including the Abuja national secretariat and its annex.
The Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force are named as defendants in the suit.
Specifically, the plaintiffs are asking the court for a mandatory injunction directing the defendants to immediately remove all barricades, unseal and vacate the PDP’s national secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Plot 1970 Michael Okpara Way, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja, including its annex, “Legacy House,” at Plot 2774 Shehu Shagari Way, Maitama, Abuja, pending the determination of the suit.
They also requested an order restraining the defendants, whether acting personally or through their officers, agents, servants or any other representatives, from invading, forcefully entering, sealing, occupying, or in any way restricting the plaintiffs’ access to, use, or occupation of any of the 1st plaintiff’s offices across the 36 states of the federation, including the national secretariat and its annex, pending the determination of the suit.
In the grounds supporting the application, the plaintiffs argued that the police, acting without lawful authority, invaded, sealed, barricaded with metal wires, and occupied the party’s national secretariat and its annex on November 18, 2025, and have continued to occupy the premises since then.
They asserted that the 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs are key officers of the party charged with its administration and overall management.
In an affidavit supporting the motion, the PDP National Secretary, Taofik Arapaja, stated that the party conducted its elective national convention in Ibadan on November 15 and 16, 2025, during which new national officers were elected, with Turaki emerging as national chairman.
He further disclosed that the Independent National Electoral Commission was duly informed of the convention’s outcome through a letter dated November 17, 2025.
Arapaja explained that the party only wrote to security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services, to notify them of an emergency stakeholders’ meeting scheduled for November 18, 2025, and to request adequate security arrangements.
He alleged that rather than providing security, a team of police officers led by the FCT Commissioner of Police arrived at the secretariat on the scheduled day, fired over 200 tear gas canisters, and sealed off the premises, thereby denying party officials, staff, and visiting governors including those of Bauchi and Oyo states access to the facility.
According to him, the police action was taken without any valid court order and constituted an arbitrary and unlawful takeover of the party’s offices.
The plaintiffs contended that the prolonged sealing of the secretariat has severely disrupted the party’s routine activities, including administrative coordination, policy development, membership administration, and election planning.
They also argued that, as a statutory body under the Nigeria Police Act 2020, the police should not act in a partisan or biased manner.
The PDP called on the court to intervene, asserting that the balance of convenience favors granting the application and that financial compensation alone would be insufficient if the requested reliefs were denied.
The plaintiffs further contended that granting the application would uphold the interests of justice and prevent the police action from appearing as though it had the court’s approval.
