• Makinde-Bala Mohammed camp storms secretariat to reclaim control
• Wike-backed faction expels three govs, senior leaders in sweeping purge
• Turaki alleges assault on democracy, says police prevented further bloodshed
• ADC, MCE accuse APC of destabilising opposition, warn of one-party drift
• NEC affirms Abdulrahman as acting chair, orders recovery of defectors’ seats
THE chaotic siege at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national secretariat yesterday, marked by thugs, tear gas and violent clashes between rival power blocs, deepened fears that the party’s crisis has become a political war on democracy, threatening opposition strength and electoral competition before 2027.
It was a day of fire and fury. As early as 7:30 a.m., the Abdulrahman-led faction had taken control of the premises, locking out supporters of Governor Seyi Makinde and the faction that elected Kabiru Tanimu Turaki as National Chairman at the recent controversial Ibadan convention.
But at 11:00 a.m., the Makinde–Bala Mohammed camp launched what party insiders called a “counter-offensive,” storming the secretariat with their newly elected chairman, Turaki, in a bid to force entry, while the Wike-aligned faction was already in a BoT meeting.
The attempt triggered a violent confrontation. Thugs escorting the two governors clashed with security personnel, prompting police to fire multiple rounds of tear gas, sending journalists, staff, and party supporters fleeing in panic.
It was a scene of fisticuffs, broken chairs, stolen cameras, and several assaults.
One journalist, Mohammed Baba, suffered head injuries after thugs believed to be loyal to the Bala Mohammed faction smashed his camera and clubbed him on the head, leaving him bleeding and disoriented.
By midday, the secretariat had descended into what one senior police officer described as “a dangerous battlefield.”
Trouble began when the newly elected National Working Committee (NWC) arrived at the Wadata Plaza headquarters in Wuse 5, Abuja, only to meet a crowd of thugs and loyalists aligned with the Nyesom Wike-led splinter group. They had gathered in response to an invitation by the embattled former National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, to a National Executive Committee meeting at the same venue.
Rising from their factional NEC, the Wike-backed group ratified the expulsion of three incumbent governors: Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), and Dauda Lawal (Zamfara), along with numerous prominent party leaders, in what insiders described as the most far-reaching purge in the party’s 26-year history.
Also expelled were Board of Trustees chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara; former Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja; former Deputy National Chairman candidate, Olabode George; former Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki; and several other influential chieftains accused of anti-party activities and disobedience of court orders.
The factional NEC, which described the gathering as its 103rd meeting, held under heavy police presence. It also ratified the dissolution of the State Executive Committees in Oyo, Bauchi, Zamfara, Yobe, Lagos, and Ekiti, mandating the National Working Committee to immediately constitute caretaker committees and begin fresh congresses.
The Edo State Exco, led by Barrister Nosa Ogieva, was, however, affirmed.
Earlier, the new National Chairman elected at the disputed Ibadan convention, Turaki, condemned the invasion of the party secretariat, warning that democracy was under “serious siege” in the country.
Flanked by the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Senator Bala Mohammed; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; and other NWC members elected at the Ibadan convention, Turaki told journalists that “enemies of progress and democracy came armed to fight us, but the police stood up to their responsibility.”
He said: “Democracy must survive, and if it means laying down our lives, we are prepared to do that. I met with the commissioner of police of the FCT. I told him that we are coming today to have our inaugural NWC meeting, and I told him that our leaders will be here to witness this historic moment.
“I also told him that we’ve seen on social media some flyers purporting to give notice of NEC and BoT by the people who are no longer members of this party. He assured us that he is going to protect us, and he assured us that he is going to provide security for us to conduct our meeting.
“I am happy that the commissioner of police of the FCT has fulfilled his promise. They have made sure that we’ve gained entry into our secretariat and we are here addressing the gentlemen of the Press.”
He added, however, that “due to some incidents that were caused by those people who are enemies of progress, who are the enemies of democracy, we have decided that this meeting will be postponed to tomorrow.”
Condemnations have continued to trail the show of shame by PDP supporters in Abuja. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) described the development as a clear sign that democracy is under siege in Nigeria.
The party said the violent attack on the PDP headquarters was a dangerous assault on democracy and regretted that the attacks were carried out “by armed men under the command of senior officials of the ruling party,” warning that the country’s democracy was under threat.
It stressed that the invasion was another episode, though a more sinister one, in what it called the ruling party’s insidious efforts to destabilise opposition parties and undermine Nigeria’s future as a multiparty democracy.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC criticised the Tinubu administration for allegedly using violence in its bid to take control of another political party. The ADC warned that such actions posed a direct threat to multiparty democracy and furthered the ruling party’s desire to entrench one-party dominance in Nigeria.
“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) strongly condemns the brazen invasion and violent takeover of the PDP National Secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, November 14, 2025, by agents of the APC Federal Government.
“The incident, without doubt, is a dangerous assault on Nigeria’s democracy, which must be condemned by everyone, regardless of party affiliation.
“Based on its various actions and machinations since coming to power, this government’s anti-democratic credentials are no longer in doubt. However, this latest assault represents a new and dangerous low, even by the already worrying standards of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
“With this action, the government is sending a chilling message that it would do anything and employ any means, including acts of terror, to advance partisan political interests. If the government could send armed agents to enforce factional control of an opposition headquarters, what stops it from doing the same to labour unions, press organisations, student movements, or peaceful protest groups?
“Therefore, let no one make the mistake of thinking that this is a PDP matter. This attack affects the future of democracy in Nigeria and sets a dangerous background for the 2027 general elections,” the party stated.
Also, the Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) faulted the deployment of the Nigeria Police Force as a political tool, noting that the use of security operatives to enforce factional battles at the PDP National Secretariat was a dangerous abuse of state power.
In a statement signed by Olawale Okunniyi, Head of Secretariat of MCE, the organisation said the police’s apparent support for one faction — between the newly elected PDP National Chairman, Mr Tanimu Turaki, and the faction aligned with the sacked Acting National Chairman, Abdulrahman Mohammed, known to be close to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike — represented a “serious threat to Nigeria’s fragile democracy.”
MCE described the incident as “unheard of and unacceptable,” noting that security personnel openly confronting each other in support of political actors mirrored earlier controversies, including the viral altercation involving the FCT Minister and military officers in Abuja. The group warned that such patterns of politicisation undermined public confidence in law enforcement ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The organisation called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to intervene and ensure neutrality and professionalism within Nigeria’s security agencies. “No democracy can survive when security institutions serve powerful political interests instead of upholding the law,” the statement said.
MCE further urged Nigerians to join efforts to protect democratic institutions and restore order, stressing that the ongoing power struggle among political elites threatened national stability.
Driving democracy to the brink
The tense exchange at the Wadata Plaza headquarters of the PDP heightened anxieties across the polity amid suggestions that entrenched political interests are attempting to push the country towards one-party domination or authoritarian rule.
A former lawmaker elected on the PDP platform, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, said the assault on political parties signalled a dangerous attack on democracy, adding that most political parties were now gripped by unease.
He stated: “There is a slow-burning crisis corroding the foundations of Nigeria’s democracy. In conventional terms, we might intuitively think of a coup or a war, but not so. This is a quiet, calculated erosion of political plurality through the endless, shameless spate of defections.
“The ruling All Progressives Congress has become a gravitational black hole, sucking in opposition politicians from the PDP, Labour Party, NNPP, and others with alarming ease. What was once a political tactic has metastasised into a systemic cancer.
“On a very serious note, Nigeria is witnessing the death of a multi-party democratic system, the collapse of opposition and the rise of a de facto one-party state. Let us be clear, defections are not new to Nigeria. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the political class has treated party loyalty as a disposable garment, only worn for convenience and discarded at the earliest opportunity or political expediency.”
Condemning the infighting within the PDP, Onwe recalled that the party — once the dominant “megatron in the theatre of Nigeria’s power play” — had itself been a magnet for defectors during its years in power. But he said what is playing out today is unprecedented in scale and consequence.
“According to recent studies, defection incidents surged from 15 in 2019 to over 180 by September 2025. Simply put, this is political cannibalism.
“Who is to blame? The carpetbaggers, certainly: those itinerant politicians who treat party platforms as mere stepping stones to power, who abandon their mandates and betray their voters for a seat at the ruling table. But to stop there is to miss the deeper rot. The APC, as the ruling party, bears a heavier burden. It has not merely welcomed defectors; it has courted them, incentivised them, and rewarded them. It has turned defection into a strategy of dominance, a tool of political conquest, both at the federal and state tiers of operation.
“The phenomenon has acquired all the attributes of annexation, ruthless in operation and annihilative in outcome. The implications for Nigeria’s democracy are dire. First, it undermines the very idea of opposition. A democracy without a viable opposition is a democracy in name only. When the ruling party absorbs its rivals through patronage and coercion, it eliminates the checks and balances essential to democratic health.
“Second, it erodes public trust. Voters who elect a candidate under one party’s banner only to see them defect post-election are left disenfranchised, disillusioned, and disgusted. Their votes are rendered meaningless, their choices mocked.
“Third, and most dangerously, it signals the creeping emergence of a one-party state. The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has rightly warned that this wave of defections amounts to a ‘coordinated assault on Nigeria’s democracy.’ When opposition governors, lawmakers, and party leaders cross over en masse to the ruling party, often under the shadow of inducement or intimidation, the line between democracy and authoritarianism begins to blur.”
He noted that the situation is not theoretical, pointing out that the PDP, once a formidable national force, is now torn by internal crises, factional conventions, and legal battles, while both the Labour Party and NNPP, despite their recent momentum, are haemorrhaging members.
The communique, read by National Secretary Senator Samuel Anyanwu, grounded the expulsions on “deliberate violations” of Articles 58(1) and 59(1) of the PDP Constitution, including disobedience of subsisting court orders and conduct “bringing the Party into disrepute.”
In a sternly worded resolution, the communique stated that: “NEC expressed deep concern over the actions of some members who violated subsisting court orders by organising and attending a purported and unauthorised convention. This act triggered confusion, factionalisation, and the defection of governors and legislators nationwide.”
The body reaffirmed that the legitimacy of the PDP rests not “on impunity or personal ambition” but on strict adherence to the rule of law.
It directed immediate constitutional action to recover the seats of all defected lawmakers, invoking Sections 68(1)(g) and 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution. It also affirmed Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman as Acting National Chairman and directed deputies in NWC positions vacated due to expulsions to assume leadership in acting capacities.
The NEC further ordered Chief Ali Odefa to refund all salaries and allowances earned since his earlier expulsion in December 2024.
A nationwide membership audit and revalidation will commence ahead of the 2027 elections, with the party announcing a reconciliation programme that “will not compromise discipline.”
However, the NEC meeting was only the climax of a day marked by high drama, violence, and a near-total breakdown of order at the Wadata Plaza headquarters.
Yesterday’s events underscored the depth of the existential struggle now consuming the PDP; a party once known as Africa’s largest political organisation, now battling bitter factionalism, defections, and a leadership vacuum.
We won’t allow dismantling of PDP, says Bala Mohammed
Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, who chairs the PDP Governors’ Forum, said the forum would no longer tolerate the activities of individuals he accused of attempting to dismantle the party.
Mohammed posted the remarks on his official social media handle yesterday, reacting to the blockade encountered at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja by him, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, the newly elected Party Chairman, and others.
He said: “As Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, I must state clearly: enough is enough. The Peoples Democratic Party does not belong to any individual; it belongs to Nigerians.
“Regarding the troubling police blockade of our party’s national secretariat, I reaffirm that the PDP Governors’ Forum will not stand by and watch the party be dismantled by those who neither understand its founding principles nor respect its future.”
He added that the forum was fully committed to working with the newly constituted National Working Committee to safeguard the national secretariat, uphold internal democracy, and protect the integrity of the party. “We shall do so with unity, strategic coordination, and an unshakable commitment to the rule of law,” he said.
“Let me be clear: the PDP will not be cowed, harassed, or silenced. We have weathered greater storms and emerged stronger. This moment will be no different. We will rise from it more united and more determined.
“I must also caution the presidency: it is a dangerous precedent to empower individuals who lack both character and commitment to democratic values, individuals who misuse state power to settle internal political disputes. Such actions do not serve our country, and they certainly do not serve the PDP. Rather, they undermine the very institutions that bind our democracy together.”
