A protest broke out on Monday at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja, as supporters loyal to the party’s National Vice Chairman (North Central), Mohammed Abdulrahman, stormed the complex.
The demonstrators, chanting solidarity songs, demanded that the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, vacate the secretariat immediately.
Abdulrahman was appointed Acting National Chairman last week amid deepening leadership tussles within the PDP, following the suspension of the party’s National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, for one month.
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In a new twist to the crisis, a faction loyal to Anyanwu held a parallel meeting elsewhere in Abuja, where it announced the suspension of the Damagum-led NWC.
The protesters accused Damagum’s leadership of mismanaging party affairs and vowed to reclaim control of the party headquarters for the Abdulrahman-led faction.
Security operatives have since been deployed to Wadata Plaza to forestall a breakdown of law and order as the rival factions jostle for control of the party’s national secretariat.