A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Abdullahi, has challenged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to attempt to take over the office of the Turaki-led faction if he is man enough.
Abdullahi was reacting to comments made by Wike during a media parley in Abuja on Wednesday, where the minister questioned the legitimacy of the Turaki group’s claim to be the authentic leadership of the PDP.
Wike had also warned that he would seal off any property used as a secretariat by the faction, insisting that no group could unilaterally establish a party structure and operate it as a national headquarters.
“You don’t form a leadership in your bedroom and call it a national structure. Let them open an office anywhere and call it PDP secretariat — I dare them. That is how you know what is real and what is not,” Wike said.
He further warned that any attempt to operate an “illegal office” in the name of the PDP in Abuja would be shut down.
“If anybody goes ahead to open an illegal office in the name of the PDP in Abuja, I will seal it. I will not allow any breach of peace because my duty is to maintain law and order in the Federal Capital Territory,” he said.
Wike also cautioned that financial institutions dealing with the faction could face consequences, adding that banks allowing the sale of nomination forms through such accounts would be “in trouble.”
Reacting during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, Abdullahi insisted that the Turaki group already operates from a known office and challenged the minister to shut it down if he could.
“We have been operating in an office. He knows the location; he should come there and take the office if he can.
“It is a temporary office, but we are meeting there and carrying out our functions. Look, we are descending into a state of anarchy where life is brutish, short, and nasty, as Thomas Hobbes would describe it,” he added.