Wike Dictatorship: Rivers PDP Protesters Shutdown Abuja National Secretariat

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

By Amos Dunia (Per Second News)

Hell was on Wednesday let loose as angry protestants stormed and took over the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), located in Zone 5, Wuse District of Abuja over injustice meted out on them during the last Saturday’s House of Assembly primaries of the party in the state.

The protesters, who clustered and sang solidarity songs vowed not to depart from the secretariat except their demands were meant thus locked out members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) and the secretariat staff from gaining access to the secretariat.

The protesters, who started arriving the party’s secretariat as early as 7.00am, took over strategic locations within the premises before the arrival of staff of the party, displaying various placards with inscriptions; “Wike can’t be our Governor”, “We want clearance to contest 2015 elections”. “Give us back our money”, “We are tired of two man State Exco”, “Felix Obuh must go”, “Wike has bought the soul of River PDP”, “Criminals have been cleared to be PDP aspirants in River State”, among other inscriptions.

The arrival of over 100 combat ready policemen drafted to the party’s secretariat did not help the situation as law enforcement agents became incapacitated just as one of the policemen was manhandled by the protesters, who described themselves as members of ex-militants.

The angry PDP members also barricaded the road leading to the PDP headquarters as well as locked the gate of the secretariat thereby forced motorists to adopt the use of only one lane of the dual carriage way.

Their grievances, they alleged included irregularities in the just concluded House of Assembly primaries conducted in the state, stressing that there was no ward congress just as no reason was given to those who were disqualified from the House of Assembly’s primaries.

They also alleged that former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike manipulated the list of the delegates and therefore insisted to be told why they were disqualified.

The protesters, who carried woods and other dangerous weapons, said they could no longer bear the injustice and want a set date for the primaries, return their mandate.

The protesters, who said they were ex-militants danced round with a casket and later became violet after consuming some bottles of Vodca and other spirits and later staged a mock burial of the former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike and the party Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus chatting Church burial songs.

A Police Inspector with the name tag, Dauda Kato, who tried to help the staff from being molested by the protesters, was hit with a stick in the face by a hefty looking man and was left with a bloodied face as he had a deep gash to his right eyebrow.

Apart from the Police, who was hit with a stick, the party National Woman Leader, Kema Chikwe was harassed and had to quickly left the place with the assistance of PDP staff and police.

At about 10:15am, a reinforcement of policemen detachment was deployed to the secretariat to complement those on ground, but could do nothing as they helplessly watched the protesters shouted, sang and dance round the area.

Even though most of the policemen were carrying batons and guns, they stood about 500 meters away from where the protesters barricaded the gate and harassing people.

One of the angry protesters, who did not disclosed his name told our correspondent that they were at the party’s headquarters to take what belong to them, adding that if the party refused to address their matter, they would go back to the creek and start their offensive.

Some of the protesters were believed to be carrying pistols as confirmed by one of the police officers, who said they have identified about 15 of them with guns.

One of the protesters, who identified himself as Hon. Davis Saloka from Eleme constituency, said they were at the party’s secretariat to kick against “open robbery perpetuated against them by the PDP.”

He said 107 members of the party paid to obtain the expression of interest and nomination forms, but 32, who he said were “Wike boys” were given dubious clearance while the rest of them were summarily disqualified from the race.

He said: “We all bought forms to participate in the PDP primary election but what we saw was out of the ordinary.We attended the screening exercise but we didn’t know our fate until Friday night when we saw a list pasted saying only 32 persons were cleared to participate in the election.

“We discovered that each person nominated from Wike’s camp were given clearance which gave them automatic ticket while the rest of us were screened out.”

Another of the protesters, who identified himself as Jude Lawrence Nwibie from Kana constituency 2 said he was disqualified for no reason, adding that a huge injustice was visited on them by the party just to please Nyesom Wike an Ikwere man, who wants to succeed another Ikwere man.

He said: “Money was collected from us for party nomination forms but we were prevented from participating in any party primary. Wike and Felix Obuah did same during the ward congress. They just wrote names of delegates. No delegate election was held.”

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