PDP drags police to court over sealing of party headquarters
A deepening crisis within Nigeria’s main opposition party has moved to the courts after one faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked a Federal High Court to order the police to vacate and unseal the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
The faction led by Kabiru Turaki (SAN) has filed a motion seeking a mandatory injunction against the Nigeria Police Force and the Inspector-General of Police, demanding the immediate removal of barricades and security personnel from the PDP secretariat and its offices nationwide.
Court documents show that the application, filed through senior advocate Chris Uche, is asking the court to compel the police to withdraw from the party’s headquarters at Wadata Plaza in Abuja, as well as its annex, Legacy House, in Maitama.
The national secretariat was sealed in November after violent clashes erupted between two rival PDP factions — one loyal to Turaki and another aligned with Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
The confrontation followed plans by both camps to hold separate meetings at the party headquarters on the same day, prompting heavy police intervention. Tear gas was fired, and the premises were subsequently locked and barricaded with barbed wire, preventing access by party officials.
The closure disrupted the planned inaugural meeting of the Turaki-led National Working Committee after he emerged as national chairman at a convention held in Ibadan in November.
However, the Wike-aligned faction rejected the convention, arguing it violated subsisting court orders issued by Federal High Court judges James Omotosho and Peter Lifu, which had restrained the PDP from holding the exercise.
In contrast, a separate High Court in Oyo State later granted an ex parte order allowing the convention to proceed. At the gathering, the party announced the expulsion of Wike, its embattled national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, factional chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and eight others over alleged anti-party activities.
In the fresh suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/252/2025, the PDP, Turaki and the party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Adolphus Wabara, are seeking orders restraining the police from invading or sealing any PDP office across Nigeria’s 36 states.
An affidavit sworn by PDP national secretary Taofik Arapaja claims the police acted without lawful authority, firing more than 200 tear gas canisters and sealing the secretariat despite the party merely notifying security agencies of an emergency stakeholders’ meeting.
The PDP insists the action has crippled its daily operations, including administration, policy coordination and election planning, and accuses the police of acting in a partisan manner contrary to the Nigeria Police Act 2020.
The party urged the court to intervene swiftly, warning that continued police occupation of its offices undermines democratic norms and risks creating the impression that the action enjoys judicial backing.