PDP youths invade secretariat, sack Sheriff
Rampaging youths believed to be loyal to the Ahmed Makarfi, on
Wednesday stormed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National
Secretariat and chased away supporters of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
In fact, the duo of former National Secretary of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Adewale Oladipo and former National
Auditor, Adewole Adeyanju, narrowly escaped being lynched by the angry
youths at the office.
Oladipo and Adeyanju are the only supporters of Sheriff from the immediate past National Working Committee (NWC).
The youths’ invasion took place less than three days after Sheriff
seized the secretariat and imposed himself as the National Chairman,
against the decision of the party’s National Convention, which sacked
him on May 21, 2016.
The protest, which was coordinated by PDP Rebirth Group in association
with the PDP Concerned Rescue Youth Group, sealed off the party’s
national headquarters and handed the keys over to the Chairman of the
Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin.
The youths, who ransacked the secretariat and sent everyone packing, also forced out Oladipo and Adeyanju.
The embattled former secretary who was visibly shaken, was too afraid
to enter his car and drive out of the premises but, preferred to walk
through the back gate. He was barefooted while he walked away, but his
driver drove out his car.
He pleaded to be allowed to go out peacefully, even as the youths booed him.
Oladipo was heard pleading with the youths saying: “Please, allow me to
go, I won’t come back again” looking back with fear as he walked, and
afraid that he might be beaten up by the youths.
Adeyanju on the other hand, jumped the low fence at the back of the
building into the Sky Memorial Shopping Complex and escaped from the
surging youths.
He left his car behind, but the protesting youths made attempts at
smashing a Blue Toyota Camry 2010 model with registration number APP
767 CK, but were restrained by their leaders.
Oladipo and Adeyanju were, however, seen boarding the former secretary’s car by the side of Sky Memorial Complex.
The protesting youths had gathered at the party secretariat as early as 7:00am singing and chanting anti-Modu-Sheriff songs.
While the youths who were less than 50 at the initial stage retreated, a counter protest was held by supporters of Sheriff.
However, the loyalists who tagged themselves “Guardians of Democracy” didn’t spend up to 20 minutes before leaving.
Immediately they left, the anti-Sheriff group reinforced and took over the office.
The protesting youths sang songs denouncing the alleged takeover of the
party secretariat by Sheriff who refused to accept his sack from office
by the National Convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State
However, at about 10:15am, while the number of the protesting youths
were less than 50, Prof Oladipo and the former National Auditor,
Adewole Adeyanju, who had pitched tent with Sheriff, came into the
secretariat, guarded by some private bodyguards who dressed like men of
the DSS to conceal their true identities.
The men dressed in black suits and dark glasses were about eight in number.
But at about 11:15am, the number of the protesting youths increased to
over 300 with the reinforcement arriving with different types of drums
and placards.
The protesters displayed different placards bearing messages like:
“Ali Modu Sheriff is not a PDP member,” “Ali Modu-Sheriff Must Go,”
“Ali Modu Sheriff can’t kill our party”, amongst others.
The protesters who had converged at the main gate of the building
thereafter became charged, with some scaling the fence and running
around the complex.
The others eventually opened the main gate to the party secretariat and took control of the premises.
Backed with loud drumming, the youths danced round the premises and
moved into the National Executive Committee (NEC) hall where they
declared themselves the new landlords of the building.
The dancing and singing continued for some more time, until the
leadership of the protesting youths, decided that all persons in the
offices must be ejected.
At about 2.10pm, the youths brought some chains and padlocks, and sealed up the premises by locking down all entries into it.
They thereafter gathered at the main gate awaiting the arrival of the members of the BoT.
At about 3:00pm, Jibrin showed up and was handed the keys of the secretariat.
Though, the youths stayed back after the departure of Jubrin, they
left at about 3:47pm in the Coaster buses and minibuses that brought
them.
Incidentally, Sheriff, who attended office on Monday and Tuesday, was absent yesterday.
His media aide, Inuwa Bwala, said his boss was in Maiduguri, Borno State to attend a burial ceremony.
Oladipo however denied claims that he was chased out of the secretariat.
In a statement he issued, Oladipo said that he actually resumed duty at the office in the morning alongside Adeyanju.
He said that he witnessed the activities of some “miscreants” who invaded the PDP secretariat to cause trouble over nothing.
Oladipo insisted that he voluntarily left the office after he was done with his work.
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