The Kabiru Turaki (SAN)-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has petitioned the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to compel the Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force to immediately vacate and unseal the party’s national secretariat and other offices nationwide.
The request is contained in a Motion on Notice filed by the faction through their lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), asking the court for a mandatory injunction to remove all barricades and allow the party access to its headquarters.
The PDP national secretariat was sealed in November following clashes between two rival factions — one led by Turaki and the other aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. The dispute arose when both factions scheduled meetings at the headquarters on the same day, prompting police intervention. Tear gas was fired, and the premises were subsequently locked and barricaded.
The sealing prevented the Turaki-led National Working Committee from holding its postponed inaugural meeting. Turaki had emerged as the party’s national chairman during a convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November. The Wike-aligned faction rejected the convention, claiming it violated existing court orders restraining the PDP from holding the exercise.
Earlier, Federal High Court Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu had barred the party from conducting its national convention scheduled for November 15–16, 2025. However, a High Court in Ibadan later allowed the convention to proceed through an ex parte order. At the Ibadan event, the party expelled Wike, embattled national secretary Samuel Anyanwu, factional chairman Mohammed Abdulrahman, and eight others over alleged anti-party activities.
In the suit, filed under FHC/ABJ/CS/252/2025 by the PDP, Turaki, and the party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, the plaintiffs seek an order restraining the police from invading, sealing, occupying, or restricting access to any of the party’s offices in the 36 states, including the Abuja headquarters and its annex. The defendants are the Inspector-General of Police and the Nigeria Police Force.
Specifically, the plaintiffs asked the court to issue “an order of mandatory injunction directing the defendants to immediately remove all barricades, unseal and vacate forthwith from the PDP national secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Plot 1970 Michael Okpara Way, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja, including its annex, ‘Legacy House’, at Plot 2774 Shehu Shagari Way, Maitama, Abuja, pending the determination of this suit.”
They also requested “an order restraining the defendants, whether by themselves, their officers, agents, servants or otherwise, from invading, breaking into, sealing, occupying or in any manner restricting access to, use, or occupation of any of the PDP’s offices in the 36 states of the federation, including its national secretariat and annex, pending the determination of this suit.”
In supporting the motion, the plaintiffs argued that the police, without lawful authority, had occupied and barricaded the national secretariat and annex since November 18, 2025. They stressed that the second and third plaintiffs are principal officers responsible for the party’s administration and management.
An affidavit by PDP national secretary Taofik Arapaja stated that the party held its national convention in Ibadan on November 15–16, 2025, electing Turaki as chairman, and that the Independent National Electoral Commission was notified of the outcome on November 17, 2025. The affidavit also said the party had only written to security agencies to request protection for a stakeholders’ meeting on November 18, 2025.
Instead of providing security, a police contingent reportedly led by the FCT Commissioner of Police fired over 200 tear gas canisters and sealed the premises, preventing party officials, staff, and visiting governors, including those of Bauchi and Oyo states, from entering. Arapaja contended that the police action lacked a valid court order and amounted to an unlawful occupation of party offices.
The plaintiffs argued that the sealing has disrupted daily operations, including administrative coordination, policy formulation, membership management, and election preparations. They stressed that the police, as a statutory body under the Nigeria Police Act 2020, should not act in a partisan manner.
The PDP urged the court to grant the injunction, noting that monetary damages would not adequately compensate the party if the reliefs were denied, and that doing so would serve justice and prevent the police action from being perceived as court-sanctioned.
