The PDP police siege is challenged in court as a Turaki led faction seeks an order unsealing the party secretariat and offices nationwide
The Kabiru Turaki Senior Advocate of Nigeria led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking a mandatory order compelling the Inspector General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force to unseal and vacate the party’s national secretariat and offices across the country.
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The application is contained in a Motion on Notice filed through lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche Senior Advocate of Nigeria, requesting the immediate removal of barricades and the withdrawal of police personnel from the PDP national headquarters in Abuja.
The party’s national secretariat at Wadata Plaza was sealed in November after violent clashes erupted between two rival factions of the PDP, one led by Kabiru Turaki and the other aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The confrontation followed plans by both factions to hold meetings at the headquarters on the same day, prompting police intervention during which tear gas was fired before the premises were locked and barricaded.
The action prevented the Turaki led National Working Committee from holding its postponed inaugural meeting, despite Turaki’s emergence as national chairman at a convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November.
The Wike aligned faction rejected the Ibadan convention, citing subsisting court orders issued by Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja restraining the PDP from holding the exercise scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025.
However, a High Court in Ibadan subsequently granted an ex parte order permitting the convention to proceed, at which the party announced the expulsion of Nyesom Wike, national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, factional chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman and eight others for alleged anti party activities.
In the substantive suit marked FHC ABJ CS 252 2025, the PDP, Turaki and the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, are seeking to restrain the police from invading, sealing or restricting access to any PDP office in the 36 states of the federation.
The plaintiffs specifically asked the court to direct the police to unseal and vacate the national secretariat and its annex, Legacy House in Maitama, pending the determination of the suit.
In an affidavit sworn by PDP national secretary Taofik Arapaja, the party alleged that police officers led by the Commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory fired more than 200 tear gas canisters and sealed the premises without any valid court order.
Arapaja said the action barred party officials, staff and visiting governors, including those of Bauchi and Oyo states, from accessing the building, disrupting critical party operations.
The plaintiffs argued that the continued PDP police siege has paralysed administrative coordination, policy formulation and election preparations, insisting that the police must not act in a partisan manner.
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They urged the court to intervene decisively, contending that the balance of convenience favours the party and that damages would not adequately remedy the situation if reliefs are refused.
