14th January, 2014
The Nigerian Police Command in Kwara State on Tuesday barred members of the PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) from entering the controversial secretariat of the PDP on Nupe Road in Ilorin, the capital.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new PDP Caretaker Committee in Kwara had invited newsmen to the secretariat for a briefing.
The APC also announced on the state-owned Radio Kwara that members should report to the secretariat for a meeting, setting the stage for a clash.
The prompt arrival of the police, however, prevented what may have been a clash between the members of the two parties both laying claim to the secretariat.
NAN recalls that Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and Senator Bukola Saraki had led members of the PDP in the state to the opposition APC.
The spokesman of the Kwara Police Command, Ajayi Okesina, who was also at the secretariat, told newsmen that it was wrong for the PDP caretaker committee to call for a briefing at the secretariat as the issue of ownership was still in court.
“Please, don’t allow anyone inside since the case is still in court.
“ We don’t want a crisis here,” Okesina told policemen within the premises of the secretariat.
But a former Chairman of Ifelodun Local Government Council, Mr Rex Olawoye, told newsmen that the PDP was not among the respondents joined in the suit over the ownership of the secretariat.
An APC stalwart, Alhaji Ishola Balogun, on his part claimed that the rent for the secretariat was paid in the name of the late Dr Olusola Saraki and would lapse late 2014.
He said the secretariat remained the property of the former PDP members inspite of their defection to the APC.
A NAN correspondent, who was at the secretariat, reports that four lorries filled with armed anti-riot policemen were at the scene.