PDP CRISIS: FG marks splinter PDP secretariat for demolition

The secretariat of the Kawu Baraje–led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is to be demolished having been marked by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

The building located at Number 4, Oyi River Crescent, l Maitama District, was sealed off almost immediately after it emerged that the faction would use the place.

Inscriptions on the wall and the gate of the building on 4, Oyi River Crescent, show that it was marked on October 11, 2013.


Our correspondent, who visited the area on Monday, noticed that an agency of the FCDA, Development Control, used red ink to inscribe the demolition notice on the wall and the gate of the building.

However, an Armoured Personnel Carrier, hitherto stationed close to the building and a Police Monitoring van have been removed.

Only a riot policeman was seen moving round the area when our correspondent visited.
However, the FCDA has unsealed the Adamawa State Governor’s Lodge, where the New PDP relocated after its Oyi River Crescent office was sealed off by the police.

Investigations by our correspondent showed that the FCDA took the action when the New PDP said it had accepted the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja,which on Friday ordered it to stop using the name, PDP, in its activities.

The lodge is located on Katsina Ala Street in Maitama District of Abuja.
It was sealed off two weeks ago by the FCDA on the grounds that the New PDP was using it for political activities, an action it said was against the approval granted for the building of the lodge.

A private security man, who spoke with our correspondent at the lodge, said that policemen drafted to the building left last weekend.

“The policemen stopped coming since Thursday last week and we don’t know why they stopped coming. But we have not seen them since then,” he said.

Five riot policemen were drafted to the building by the FCDA in a move aimed at stopping the faction of the PDP from using the building for its meetings.

Speaking on the plan to demolish the secretariat, the spokesperson for the New PDP, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, said it was an attempt by the Minister of the FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, to satisfy his paymaster.
He also said the minister was determined to weaken the opposition, an action he said would fail.

Eze said, “This will show the level of desperation which the PDP officials and the FCT Minister want to use to attack and kill opposition in the country. But it will fail. It can’t weaken us. “What is the reason for the move to demolish a building that has its plan and other documentation that are intact, including the certificate of occupancy. This is nothing but desperation.

“But it is expected. A government that has no value for the rule of law can go to any extent to perpetrate any evil. We wait to see what would happen next.”

Perhaps, in order to weaken the opposition, the Federal Government started using the FCDA to threaten the members of the New PDP some weeks ago.

The FCT administration had revoked the Certificate of Occupancy of a building belonging to Alhaji Rabiu Kwakwanso, one of the seven governors behind the New PDP.
An event centre, A-Park, owned by Sen. Aisha Al-Hassan, a staunch member of the faction has also been marked for demolition.
The event centre is located near the OAU Quarters in Maitama District.
A former Governor of Gombe State, Sen. Danjuma Goje, had his security details withdrawn for allegedly showing support to the PDP faction.
The security details of a former Governor of Kwara State, Sen. Bukoka Saraki, who is also a member of the faction, were withdrawn by the Police authorities.

Saraki is also being investigated by the Special Fraud Unit, an arm of the Police, over alleged bonds he took while in office.

It was also gathered that the Police in Bayelsa State had declared the chairman of the faction in the state, Chief Richard Kpodo, and secretary, Sivi Godswill, wanted.

Apart from them, other high ranking members of the party in the state were said to have been declared wanted for allegedly belonging to a political party alien to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Abubakar Baraje faction, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze confirmed to a media correspondent on the telephone last night that the faction was aware of the move to demolish the property.

Eze said: ”We are aware of it. Nigerians should prepare for the worst because we have cried out enough. They are telling us that we are not entitled to own property in our own fatherland. They want to prove to the world that they are more Nigerians than the rest of us.

“This is a property with all the necessary documents duly certified by the approving authority. They were calling us names when we cried out that these people never meant well for the country and its people.

“ Now they have left no one in doubt that they are intolerant of opposing views. Nigerians can now see what we meant when we said that these people are no democrats. We certainly need prayers at this point in our nation’s history. We are pleading with the Nigerian people to be praying for us. We need serious prayers”.