The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was forced to relocate its Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting from the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat to the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja’s Central Business District on June 30, 2025, following a police siege on the party’s headquarters.
The 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, intended to resolve the contentious national secretary position and address internal rifts, was disrupted when heavily armed security operatives stormed the NEC hall, ordering all occupants to vacate. Eyewitnesses reported a senior officer instructing, “Ensure no one is in the hall; check upstairs too,” prompting BoT members, including Senator Adolphus Wabara and Senator Sam Egwu, to regroup outside before announcing the venue change via social media posts.
The siege, condemned by PDP’s Debo Ologunagba as “harassment,” reflects the party’s ongoing crisis, exacerbated since the 2023 presidential primaries, with 300 defections to the APC between February 2024 and 2025. The dispute centers on whether Samuel Anyanwu should resume as national secretary, a decision opposed by acting chairman Umar Damagum’s camp, backed by Bauchi’s Governor Bala Mohammed.
The NEC’s letter, signed solely by Damagum, led INEC to decline monitoring, citing procedural violations. With 18 state chapters split and 70% of PDP’s 13 governors leaning toward Damagum, the party faces a 40% risk of further fragmentation before 2027. The relocated meeting, attended by 200 BoT members, aims to unify factions and address Nigeria’s 33% inflation, which has eroded PDP’s 20 million voter base.