The Peoples Democratic Party’s long-running internal war entered a more dramatic phase on Saturday as the Nigeria Police Force unsealed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja and handed control to the Wike-aligned leadership.
The move affects Wadata Plaza in Wuse Zone 5 and the Legacy House in Maitama, ending nearly 19 weeks of closure and effectively restoring access to the faction led by Abdulrahman Mohammed and Senator Samuel Anyanwu.
The party said the reopening was done in compliance with court orders.
The latest development is the culmination of a crisis that has steadily escalated since November 19, 2025, when police sealed the premises after violent clashes between rival PDP camps.
Reports show the confrontation broke out after separate factions tried to hold meetings at the same venue, forcing the police to fire tear gas to disperse supporters.
That closure has now ended, but the political rupture inside the opposition party remains unmistakably open.
The legal backbone of Saturday’s handover is crucial. On March 30, 2026, the Federal High Court in Abuja restrained the Kabiru Turaki-led faction from accessing the party secretariat and ordered security agencies, including the police and DSS, to protect the Wike-backed camp while it accessed the headquarters.
The court held that the Ibadan convention of November 15 and 16, 2025, which produced the Turaki camp, violated the Constitution and the PDP constitution, and it treated the convention outcomes as a nullity.
Earlier, on March 9, 2026, the Court of Appeal upheld the Federal High Court rulings, invalidated the Ibadan convention, and barred INEC from recognising the Turaki leadership.
In its reaction, the Mohammed-led National Working Committee praised the police for what it described as professionalism and respect for the rule of law.
The party said it would not tolerate “obstruction, disruption, or a breach of peace” at the secretariat again and urged members to “sheath their swords” and return to unity.
It also explicitly thanked Nyesom Wike, describing his support as invaluable. Those words are not just ceremonial.
They are a public signal that the Wike camp believes it now has both the legal and operational upper hand inside the party structure.
Yet the story is not over. The rival Turaki-led bloc has already gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the appellate judgment, and its lawyers have argued that the legal battle over the party’s leadership and convention remains alive.
That means Saturday’s police action may settle access to the building for now, but it does not necessarily end the wider legitimacy fight.
In practical terms, PDP is still living with two realities at once: a faction that controls the secretariat and another that insists the final word has not yet been spoken by the apex court.
This is why the unsealing matters beyond the gates of Wadata Plaza. Control of a party’s national secretariat is control of its nerve centre, its communications, files, political branding, and day-to-day authority.
For a party already weakened by years of factional mistrust, the optics are severe. The ruling camp now has the advantage of possession, court-backed policing, and a public statement framed as a restoration of order.
The Turaki camp, by contrast, is left to fight on in the courts and in the court of public opinion, where the PDP’s credibility as a national alternative is once again being tested.
The deeper political lesson is that the PDP crisis is no longer merely an internal quarrel. It has become a power contest in which court orders, police enforcement, and factional loyalty are now intertwined.
Wike has repeatedly framed the conflict as a struggle for legality and order, while his opponents see it as an institutional takeover dressed up as compliance.
With the 2027 election cycle looming, the danger for the PDP is not only that it has split into camps, but that one of Nigeria’s oldest opposition parties is increasingly appearing unable to govern itself, let alone present itself as a viable national alternative.
Follow us on our broadcast channels today!
- WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VawZ8TbDDmFT1a1Syg46
- Telegram: https://t.me/atlanticpostchannel
- Facebook: https://www.messenger.com/channel/atlanticpostng
