The ongoing crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the faction led by Kabiru Turaki (SAN) has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking an order to unseal the party’s national secretariat and other offices nationwide.
The faction is demanding that the Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force immediately remove all barricades and vacate the PDP headquarters.
The legal action, filed through lead counsel Chief Chris Uche (SAN), requests a mandatory injunction directing the police to withdraw from the party’s offices without delay. The PDP national secretariat was sealed in November following violent clashes between two rival factions—one led by Turaki and the other aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The conflict arose after both factions scheduled meetings at the party headquarters on the same day, leading to police intervention. Tear gas was reportedly used, and the premises were subsequently locked and barricaded with barbed wire. This action prevented the Turaki-led National Working Committee from holding its postponed inaugural meeting.
Turaki emerged as the party’s national chairman at a convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November. However, the Wike-aligned faction rejected the convention, citing existing court orders restraining the PDP from holding such an exercise.
Prior to the convention, Federal High Court Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu had issued orders stopping the PDP from conducting the national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025. Despite this, a High Court in Ibadan granted an ex parte order allowing the convention to proceed.
At the Ibadan convention, the party announced the expulsion of Wike, national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, factional chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and eight others for alleged anti-party activities.
In the fresh suit (FHC/ABJ/CS/252/2025), the PDP, alongside Turaki and the chairman of its Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, asked the court to restrain the police from further interfering with the party’s operations.
The plaintiffs seek an order mandating the police to remove all barricades and vacate the national secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Abuja, including its annex, ‘Legacy House’ in Maitama, pending the suit’s determination. They also request a restraining order preventing the police from restricting access to any of the party’s offices across Nigeria.
The plaintiffs argue that the police acted without lawful authority when they sealed and occupied the party’s secretariat and annex from November 18, 2025, and have remained there since.
This legal battle marks a big development in the PDP’s internal crisis, with the court’s decision likely to impact the party’s operations and unity ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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