The factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose office was sealed off by the Police on Saturday in Abuja, Abubakar Baraje, has threatened to sue the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and the Commissioner of Police in Abuja, Femi Ogunbayode, for flouting court orders.
Different courts in suits filed by the two factions of the PDP asked that the current status quo be maintained pending the determination of the suits. Mr. Baraje said the current status quo means the two factions continue to exist as they are.
Mr. Baraje, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES over the telephone on Saturday, while reacting to the sealing of their secretariat in Maitama, Abuja, said, “We are going to court to demand that the Police IG should be jailed. The court has ruled that we should maintain the status quo, so for them to go ahead and seal our office is the height of illegality and disrespect for the rule of law.”
Mr. Baraje said his faction will also demand for anyone else involved in the sealing of the secretariat to be jailed, especially the Abuja Commissioner of Police for carrying out the order.
“What they did is a clear lack of tolerance for democratic ethos, and it shows that they have no respect for the laws of the land,” he added.
Police officers in Abuja had earlier on Saturday sealed off the factional secretariat of the PDP located along Orji River Street, by Panama, in Maitama District of Abuja. Sources had told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Baraje and other factional leaders had been placed under security watch.
The Police are yet to give any reason for the closure while police spokesman, Frank Mba, did not pick calls made to his phone.
Mr. Baraje’s faction has the support of seven governors and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, while the major faction is led by the current National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur and has the backing of 16 of the PDP governors and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Oyinlola reacts
In his official reaction to Saturday’s police action, the National Secretary of the Baraje-faction of the PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said that security forces were mobilised to seal off the office on Saturday based on a non-existent court injunction which the Tukur faction claimed to have obtained on Friday.
“The whole world knows that Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday refused to grant Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s application for an ex parte injunction against our party’s executive. The Judge asked parties to maintain the status quo. His judgement was a reinforcement of an early order of the Lagos High Court which also asked parties to maintain the status quo. Now, should Nigerians conclude that Tukur’s interpretation of status quo is this crude display of naked power and undisguised impunity?
“We are not at all surprised at this occurrence given the fact that Tukur issued a statement on Friday evening deliberately seeking to mislead the media and the public that Justice Chukwu granted him an injunction against us. We are happy that the ever vigilant Nigerian press ignored him and his falsehood. Now, he is not only wilfully disobeying the various courts which have made pronouncements on this matter, he is spicing up his love for impunity with this reckless misuse of state power by misleading the police.
“We call for an immediate removal of the siege to our secretariat. We call on the Inspector General of police to order the immediate removal of his men from our office. Doing so, we believe, will serve the interest of justice, rule of law and democracy. Nigeria is a country ruled by law and not by might and force.
“We hasten to say that if this move is aimed at breaking our spirit, that goal is definitely off the mark. We are determined to rescue our party from the lawlessness and crass arrogance that have defined the character of the Tukur leadership since inception. Our party needs that deliverance, its members deserve the change we have brought into it,” Mr. Oyinlola said in a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES.
Resolving the PDP crisis
Despite several meetings held to solve the PDP crisis and unite the factions, the crisis seems to worsen daily.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how, during one of the peace meetings presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the President Villa, the president stormed out and accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of being the brain behind the crisis. He was later persuaded to return the meeting attended by some of the PDP governors in the new faction.
Mr. Obasanjo had also called for a meeting of elders of the party. The elders including former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, and Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Tony Anenih, met with the two factions of the PDP on Friday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
While addressing journalists after Friday’s meetings, Mr. Obasanjo said the crisis is “capable of tearing the party apart”.
Source: Premium Times