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.