According to source, no one is allowed to enter the building. When one of the riot police was asked he said that they were given an order “from above” not to allow anyone to enter the building.
He, however, declined to state who gave the order. The riot policemen, who were all armed with guns, were overheard saying they might be at the place for the next few days.
The Baraje-led New PDP however described the closure of its head office by the police as the height of impunity.
A statement issued by the National Secretary of the faction, Mr. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, in Abuja on Saturday, said , “The whole world knows that Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday refused to grant Bamanga Tukur’s application for an ex parte injunction against our party’s executive.
“The judge asked the parties to maintain the status quo. His judgment was a reinforcement of an earlier order of the Lagos High Court, which also asked parties to maintain the status quo. Now, should Nigerians conclude that Tukur’s interpretation of status quo is this crude display of naked power and undisguised impunity?
“We are not at all surprised at this occurrence, given the fact that Tukur issued a statement on Friday evening deliberately seeking to mislead the media and the public that Justice Chukwu granted him an injunction against us.
“We are happy that the ever vigilant Nigerian press ignored him and his falsehood. Now, he is not only wilfully disobeying the various courts, which have made pronouncements on this matter, he is spicing up his love for impunity with this reckless misuse of state power by misleading the police.
“We call for an immediate removal of the siege to our secretariat. We call on the Inspector-General of Police to order the immediate removal of his men from our office. Doing so, we believe, will serve the interest of justice, rule of law and democracy. Nigeria is a country ruled by law and not by might and force.
“We hasten to say that if this move is aimed at breaking our spirit, that goal is definitely off the mark. We are determined to rescue our party from the lawlessness and crass arrogance that have defined the character of the Tukur leadership since inception. Our party needs that deliverance; its members deserve the change we have brought into it,” the statement said.
But the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP defended the action, arguing that by ordering that the parties in the dispute maintain status quo ante bellum until the determination of the case, “the court clearly granted the request of the PDP that the group led by Baraje should not operate or be recognised by INEC.”
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