The ousted chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party has stormed the National Secretariat of the opposition party to take over the affairs of the party.Sheriff led his group to storm the secretariat early on Monday morning.
He was however prevented from gaining entrance to the secretariat by Armed security operatives.
Sheriff was chairman before the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt on May 21.
He told reporters outside the party’s headquarters on Monday that he remained the chairman of the party until 2018 and decried the presence of policemen with arms at the party’s office.
The former Senator added that the court did not recognise the constitution of a caretaker committee.
Senator Sheriff, who was at the secretariat with the party’s national secretary and national treasurer, said: “As you may be aware, that we have been facing some challenges since we put off the national convention in Port Harcourt last month. “We, therefore, consider it the height of self-deceit for anyone to pretend that the PDP is not in crisis.
“But I want to assure you that we have been working round the clock to see how we can resolve the matter without being on the wrong side of the law.“All the judgments that are available today recognise us as the sole chairman of this party.
“We have a court order in our hand to allow us to go into our office but the inspector general of police, after having a truce with him that nobody should be allowed until we have decided, he decided to take the law into his hands and allow the wrong people,” he told a gathering of supporters at the secretariat.Senator Sheriff also threatened to enforce his rights to the office beyond the blockade by the police.“We will be law abiding, but Nigeria Police is made for Nigerian people to observe the rule of law.
“The law clearly stated that the Inspector General of Police should give us police to go into the office, but he brought platoon of police to block the office.
“We will go back because we do not want some miscreants to take the law into their hands.“We will wait and take the mater beyond Nigeria Police Force,” he said.
His prevention from entering the party’s secretariat is coming weeks after he was removed as the chairman of the party.It is the second time that security personnel will barricade the entrance of party’s secretariat.
Members of the party had earlier been prevented from entering the national office days after the removal of Senator Sheriff.
He was removed at a convention held in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria on May 21, with a caretaker committee set up to co-ordinate the affairs of the party.The Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, a former Governor of Kaduna State, was mandated to elect a new National Working Committee for the party within three months.
The PDP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis, which culminated in two parallel conventions in Abuja and Port Harcourt last month.
The PDP is Nigeria’s biggest opposition party, and was defeated only in May 2015 after holding power for 16 years.
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