New PDP' Reacts on Secretariat Seal Off

Officers of the Nigeria Police on the afternoon of September 7, 2013, Saturday, sealed off the office of the Abubakar Baraje led PDP faction, an action that has been described as the “height of impunity” by the group.

A statement issued by Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the National Secretary of the Baraje-led group, said security forces sealed off the office at Panama Street, Maitama, Abuja, 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,” the statement said.

Secretary Oyinlola wondered why Tukur, who appeared before the party’s elders on September 6, 2013, Friday, ostensibly in search of peace, could, in less than 12 hours later, start another round of conflict.