A conspicuous manifestation of the merger of members of the new PDP with the opposition APC in Kwara State is the sealing off of the PDP secretariat in the state by the Police. Crisis erupted over who is the rightful owner of the secretariat, as members of the nPDP led by  former governor of the state, Senator  Bukola Saraki and  their rival  mainstream PDP trade tackles to take control of the property.

Last Saturday, the Kwara State Police Command averted what could have been a major political clash between members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) and the mainstream PDP in the state. Weekly Trust gathered that tempers rose following the insistence of the two factions to hold their meeting at the PDP secretariat located on No. 12 Nupe Road GRA in Ilorin. 

The development, analysts opine, is a fall-out of the defection into the opposition APC of the new PDP members led by former governor of the state, Senator Saraki and the incumbent Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Consequently, those who chose to remain to in the mainstream PDP are asking the defected members to vacate the secretariat, since they have decided to dump the party. 

But the former  PDP members  are claiming that  the rent of the property   has been and is still  paid by  Saraki and not the party, adding that  since Saraki has defected to  the APC,  it is his discretion  to use the property for what he so desires.

Conscious of the ripples of the merger with APC last Tuesday, chairman of the former PDP, Hon. Ishola Balogun-Fulani had Wednesday last week addressed a press conference stating the stand of the merged PDP faction. He said no individual or group could reject the ex-PDP members out of the building. 

Speaking at the secretariat where all the PDP logos, banners and other insignias had been removed, Balogun-Fulani said “for the avoidance of doubt, I will want you to know that this secretariat where you see the logo of PDP and so on is being paid for by our leaders. It is not being paid by the PDP.” 

 “So nobody can come here and say they are taking over because this building does not belong to the PDP. It belongs to our leaders and the rent paid on the property is in my name, not in the name of the PDP. So this building will remain for the party we are about to join. Presently nobody can come and eject us out of this building because it does not belong to PDP,” Balogun-Fulani said.

Weekly Trust,  gathered that the controversy over the secretariat came to the fore last Saturday when mainstream PDP leaders in the state planned to hold their meeting at the secretariat. This prompted the former PDP executives to quickly mobilize their supporters from the 16 LGAs of the state to converge at the secretariat, apparently to resist the move. 

With the insistence of both camps to hold their meetings at the secretariat and the security implication of such adamant posture, the state police command cordoned the area. The police explained that the action was predicated on the desire to forestall any break down of law and order. 

The secretariat was already crowded with supporters of Saraki who had abandoned the popular PDP slogan for that of the APC to reflect the recent political alignment of their masters. But the police prevented some stalwarts and loyalists from entering the secretariat.  

All roads leading to the secretariat were blocked by the stern-looking anti-riot police men who also prevented journalists from gaining access to the building. More than 10 mobile police vans and a lion squadron truck loaded with policemen kept vigil round the property. 

However, there was tension, apprehension and anxiety especially when the PDP members were said to be coming to the secretariat to hold a meeting. It was gathered that the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Agboola Oshodi-Gover directed his officers and men not to allow supporters of either groups to enter the secretariat.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Olufemi Fabode who spoke to reporters at the secretariat said the police would allow the former PDP members to use the secretariat for that day, and that after that the building would be sealed off. 

“The presence of policemen here is to maintain law and order, because of the insistence of the two warring parties to hold their meetings here. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police has directed that the building should be sealed off immediately after this meeting. Once they vacate this place, no one goes in or comes out again,” the PPRO said.

“Anybody who is aggrieved should go to court. The police would remain here until a court of competent jurisdiction decides on the actual owner of the building,” said the police spokesman. 

The property was however taken over by the police with two police vans stationed in front of it, reminiscent of the sealing of the Baraje-led new PDP national secretariat in Abuja.

The police’s decision on ownership of the secretariat was announced after the ex-PDP chairman told reporters at the secretariat that the biulding does not belong to the mainstream PDP. He urged those claiming the secretariat to go and rent theirs.

He said  “Where you are today is Sarakite office belonging to our leader, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. Though, this place used to be the PDP secretariat, but  since our defection to the  APC, we have turned it to Sarakite office, because the person who pays for it is Saraki.  And  this is the receipt (displaying it) and the receipt bears my name and we paid N800,000 for this place not in the name of PDP,  but in the name of Abubakar Olusola Saraki. So, nobody can occupy this place. If the PDP wants to use  the office, they should go and rent their own office.”

A copy of the receipt of the building’s rent obtained by Weekly Trust was issued in the name of Ishola Balogun-Fulani by one Niyi Odetundun & Company and it would expire on April 30, 2014. The receipt shows   a payment of N800, 000   meant for tenancy period of 1st May, 2013 to 30th April, 2014, at 12 Nupe Road, G.R.A, Ilorin.

Member of the House of Assembly representing Ipaye/Malete/Oloru, Hon. Iliasu Ibrahim advised Saraki and his supporters to vacate the secretariat since they have decided to dump the party. According to him, it was “a bloody lie” to claim that the building did not belong to the main PDP. 

“In the first instance, that party secretariat has been in existence before the emergence of Bukola Saraki as governor in 2003. He has  not got into the party when we acquired that place for the PDP and since they had defected to the other party to where they think they belong, then they should leave our party secretariat for us,” he said.

Though he disputed, without evidence,    the claim by Balogun-Fulani that the rent was paid in his name,  but insisted that the  truth would emerge soon. He assured PDP supporters that their meeting would be held at the secretariat.

In retrospect, the secretariat was said to have been acquired by old PDP members before the late Saraki and his supporters defected from the then All Peoples Party (APP) to the party prior to the 2003 election. But throughout the eight years tenure of Saraki who is currently a Senator representing Kwara Central, the party under his leadership has been the financier of the secretariat. 

The question on the lips of many observers now is which of the groups truly own the secretariat? Can the old PDP members really claim a party secretariat, whose rent is paid by someone else for years?