The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Wike, has defended the deployment of police to barricade and prevent the Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party from accessing a venue in Abuja. The venue had initially been intended for the ratification of former President Goodluck Jonathan as a presidential candidate, before the security clampdown stopped the gathering.
The minister framed the move strictly as a matter of duty. He said he owed a duty not to allow a breach of peace in the city, to protect lives and property, and to make sure economic activities continued without molestation. In his telling, preventing the gathering was about keeping order in the capital rather than taking sides.
He said the group had written to him claiming that it had already held its congresses as allowed by law. At the same time, he argued, word had reached him that some people now wanted to use the party's name again for what he described as a separate national convention, a move he was not prepared to accommodate at the disputed venue.
Pressed on the dispute, the minister insisted that there is only one Peoples Democratic Party, organised by the electoral umpire as created by law. Anything outside that, he said, was simply a faction, and he was dismissive of the idea that a rival gathering could claim the same standing as the recognised party structure.
He also defended the decision on safety grounds. Allowing the contested gathering to go ahead at that venue, he warned, could have drawn others to come and attack it, turning into a fight and creating what he called a problem in Abuja. Foreseeing that risk, he argued, it was his responsibility to step in and stop it before it escalated.
The minister pointed out that those involved were already pursuing the matter through the courts and were said to be heading to appeal their case. He urged them to be patient and to allow the legal process to run its course, rather than take the law into their own hands by forcing the event through.
Looking more broadly at the state of the opposition, the minister cast the turbulence as a test of leadership and capacity. He referred to protests that erupted during another party's congress and to the wave of governors who had left the PDP, presenting the upheaval as a challenge that serious political actors must be able to confront rather than flee.