The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party took another dimension on Wednesday, as suspected thugs invaded the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, disrupting the 79th Board of Trustees meeting.
The PDP has been embroiled in a leadership crisis, as Samuel Anyanwu and Sunday Udey-Okoye continue to lay claim to the office of the national secretary.
A high court and the court of appeal, both sitting in Enugu, on December 20, 2024 and January 14 removed Mr Anyanwu from office and recognised Mr Udey-Okoye as the PDP national secretary.
Mr Anyanwu, however, later secured a stay of execution order from the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in an appeal No. CA/E/24/2024 on the judgment earlier delivered by the Enugu division of the appellate court.
The latest crisis started a few minutes after the opening ceremony of the meeting, when non-BoT members and journalists were asked to leave the hall for a closed-door session.
As the indoor session was about to commence, the party’s former National Youth Leader, Sunday Udey-Okoye, was dragged out of the hall by the political thugs, claiming that he was not a BoT member.
Thereafter, the thugs, suspected to be loyal to Mr Anyanwu, mounted the hall, shouting that Mr Udey-Okoye cannot enter the hall again.
The situation forced the supporters of Udey-Okoye to mobilise themselves to the entrance of the hall to confront one of Mr Anyanwu’s aides who quickly ran inside the hall and closed the door.
Some of the political thugs were also seen scaling the fence of the PDP national secretariat to support their respective leaders.
It took the intervention of the police and other security agents around to bring the situation under control, using pepper spray.
More security operatives from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the military were mobilised to the party secretariat to restore normalcy.
The meeting was chaired by the acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagum, and the BoT Chairman, Adolphus Wabara.
As of the time this report was filed, the closed-door meeting was ongoing, but without Udeh-Okoye in attendance.
