Mob storms PDP hqtrs …….. NATION

The leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) escalated yesterday as an army of angry youths stormed the party’s headquarters.

Armed with placards and leafy tree branches, the youths, who arrived at the secretariat as early as 7am, castigated “ousted” party chair Ali Modu Sheriff.

Sheriff, who stayed briefly in his office on Tuesday, did not show up at the secretariat yesterday. He was away in Maiduguri, honouring an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invitation.

National Secretary Adewale Oladipo and sacked National Auditor Adewole Adeyanju were harassed by the mob.

Oladipo and Adeyanju have rejected their sack, insisting that their tenure remains valid till 2017.

Oladipo replaced Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as National Secretary in 2013 when the latter was forced out in an internal power play.

Adeyanju similarly benefited from the sack of his predecessor, Mr. Bode Mustapha, who was eased out in similar circumstances at about the same time.

They have both joined Sheriff in a plethora of litigations seeking to validate their positions through the courts.

Encircled by the youths, Oladipo pleaded in a subdued voice to be allowed to leave the premises unharmed. He was visibly shaken.

“Please, allow me to go. I will not come back again,” he pleaded amid a cacophony of denunciatory remarks from the youths.

After being left off the hook, Oladipo scurried away to enter his car parked at a safe distance from the secretariat building.

Apparently too frightened to engage the youths in any dialogue, Adeyanju escaped through a back gate, abandoning his car.

Some of the youths attempted to vandalise his blue coloured Toyota Camry, but security operatives saved the situation.

The car was still at the parking lot as at 4. 35pm.

One of the party’s internal security operatives told our correspondent that he had made several calls to Adeyanju, asking him to send his driver to fetch the car but the politician simply ignored his entreaties.

After chasing Oladipo and Adeyanju away, the mob moved to the main reception where about 12 hefty men in black suits had taken position since Monday.

Party sources said the men were brought in by a controversial Anambra-based PDP chieftain known for his proclivity for bare knuckle approach to power struggle.

The men had been providing security for Sheriff since he seized the secretariat on Monday. But they were no match for the rampaging youths who marched them out of the secretariat.

Quietly, the black suited chaps simply grabbed their luggage and filed out of the building one after the other, with the youths ordering them not to return to the secretariat.

The leader of the protesting youths, Comrade Franklin Edele, described Sheriff as one of the longest-serving members of the opposition in national politics and that he is not known to the PDP.

Edele, who claimed to be the National President of a new group, the PDP National Rebirth Group, said Sheriff would not be allowed to destroy the party.

“We won’t allow anybody to hijack the PDP. Sheriff must go. We must do everything democratically possible to win the Edo governorship election. Sheriff was planted by the APC into the PDP. He came in wrongly and he has been shown the way out,” he said.

The protest recorded no human casualty and no property was damaged. After the dust had settled, the youths ordered secretariat staff out of the premises.

They locked the main entrance and called the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, on the telephone.

Jibrin appeared at the secretariat at about 3.18pm, collected the keys and left immediately.

Policemen and journalists covering the party were allowed to remain  at the secretariat.

The protest came ahead of a meeting of key party organs and other stakeholders scheduled to hold in Abuja last night to deliberate on the seizure of the secretariat by Sheriff.

Expected at the meeting were the party’s governors, members of the BoT, the National Assembly Caucus and other stakeholders.

Some placard-carrying protesters, who support Sheriff, stormed the secretariat at 5.15 pm after the pro Makarfi protesters had left. They broke the lock on the main gate and trooped into the facility, singing in praise of Sheriff.