The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, moved the venue of its Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting from the Wadata Plaza – the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja – to the Yar’Adua Centre in the Central Business District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“The Meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) Meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) earlier scheduled to hold by 10am at the Party’s National Secretariat in Abuja has been moved to Yar’Adua Centre, Central Business District, Abuja,” the PDP stated on its official handle on X (formerly Twitter).
The party faulted the takeover of its secretariat by armed policemen from the FCT Police Command.
Reports from the Yar’Adua Centre said the arrival of BoT members who were earlier denied access to the Wadata Plaza, had started arriving.
The PDP described as harassment, the actions of the policemen who barred BoT members from accessing the secretariat for their meeting.
The police had disallowed members of the party’s BoT) including Maina Chiroma from entrance into the premises of the secretariat.
A former National Secretary of the PDP, Umar Tsauri, reportedly said that the police stopped the BoT members, claiming they were acting based on an “order from above”.
The displeased BoT members and party chieftains including Bode George later left the secretariat amid tension over the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting also scheduled for Monday.
Meanwhile, the FCT Police Command has said that policemen were drafted to the party’s secretariat to maintain law and order.
In a statement, FCT Police spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, said: “Police officers were only deployed to the venue to maintain law and order and ensure public safety in line with their constitutional mandate. At no time was the Secretariat sealed off by the Police.”