Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed D. Abubakar, on Saturday, ordered the seal off of the national headquarters of the Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.
Anti-riot policemen sealed the office based on the order of an Abuja Federal High Court.
But the National Secretary of the faction, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, told the IGP to remove his men from the premises because their action is illegal.
He said the court did not grant the prayers of the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the party and, therefore, the IGP should not allow himself to be used for partisan purposes.
Describing the police action as the height of impunity, Oyinlola said in a statement: “Security forces were mobilised to seal off the office on Saturday based on a non-existent court injunction which the Tukur faction claimed to have obtained on friday.
“The whole world knows that Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday refused to grant Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s application for an ex parte injunction against our party’s executive. The Judge asked parties to maintain the status quo. His judgement was a reinforcement of an early 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. We say police action in this respect is a clear contempt of court and an affront on the rights of members of the party. 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 wondered why Tukur, who appeared before the party’s elders on Friday ostensibly in search of peace, could, in less than 12 hours later, start another round of acts of impunity.
