By Abiola Olawale
The newly elected factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, has assumed office at the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat in Abuja.
Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, was elected at a National Convention held in Ibadan last weekend.
His ascension comes amidst a volatile legal and political environment that has seen rival factions engage in a physical struggle for control of the party’s headquarters.
Tensions peaked early Tuesday as the pro-Turaki faction, backed by Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), stormed the secretariat to formalize the new leadership’s control.
They were met by a rival faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and the factional National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.
Meanwhile, shortly after assuming office, Turaki thanked the PDP leaders for what he described as their “resilience” and “courage” in resisting attempts to destabilise the party.
“I want to thank all of you for your resilience, for your courage, for your resoluteness in this struggle to take over our party, our property, and in doing so, to save democracy,” he said.
Turaki claimed that for several hours, leaders loyal to him were engaged in a confrontation with “renegade members” who were expelled at the party’s national convention in Ibadan.
“For the past seven hours, Nigerians have been living witnesses to the struggle we’ve been engaged in with those renegade members of our party that were expelled in our national convention in Ibadan. They came here with armed thugs, as we predicted, to disrupt our meetings, but we were able to contain them effectively,” he said.
Turaki said his camp had now taken full control of the secretariat.
“Now, we have driven them out of the secretariat, and as you can see, I have entered my office. I have assumed leadership as the elected chairman,” he said.
He insisted that the confrontation did not end the internal power struggle.
“This struggle is a continuing one. We will remain relentless; we will continue to fight,” he declared.
Turaki also directed strong criticism at the Federal Government, accusing a member of the President’s cabinet of leading the disruption.
“The president should call his minister to order. The kind of conduct that the minister got himself engaged in this morning is unbecoming. How can a serving minister lead thugs to disrupt a legally arranged meeting?
“If we had not exercised restraint… There would have been bloodshed here. We were tear-gassed — more than 50 canisters were shot at us — but we remain relentless,” he added.
