A dramatic and chaotic scene unfolded at the Peoples Democratic Party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday as factional leaders clashed, leading to a stunning international plea for intervention from within the opposition party.
The newly elected factional National Chairman of the PDP, Kabiru Turaki, flanked by supporters, made an extraordinary appeal to United States President Donald Trump and other world leaders to “come and save democracy in Nigeria,” which he declared was “under threat.”
His impassioned call for help came just moments before rival party factions, one loyal to him and another to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, engaged in a violent confrontation outside the Wadata Plaza headquarters.
“I want to call on President Trump. What is at stake is not just genocide against Christians; he should come and save democracy in Nigeria. Democracy is under threat,” Turaki stated forcefully to a gathering of journalists, his voice rising above the tense atmosphere. “I am calling all other developed nations, all advanced democracies, come and save Nigeria.”
The political crisis within the main opposition party escalated sharply as both the Turaki-led group and the Wike-backed faction, led by a factional National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu, had scheduled parallel National Executive Committee and Board of Trustees meetings for the same day.
Turaki did not mince words when assigning blame for the day’s disorder, directly accusing the Wike camp of deploying violence to thwart his faction.
He alleged that the rival group mobilised armed thugs to disrupt party activities and physically prevent his National Working Committee from accessing their own office. In a declaration that underscored the depth of the rift, Turaki vowed that his group was ready to pay the ultimate price.
“I have said it, we are willing to lay down our lives to protect our office, to protect democracy and to protect our mandate,” he added.
The situation deteriorated from a war of words into outright chaos shortly after his press briefing. Security forces deployed tear gas canisters to disperse the clashing party loyalists, plunging the secretariat’s entrance into pandemonium.
The acrid smoke caused party members, secretariat staff, and journalists covering the event to cough uncontrollably and scramble for safety, abandoning equipment in the process.
Just outside the gates, the rival camps continued their pitched battle, hurling objects and shouting slogans, thereby intensifying a standoff that has cast a long shadow over Nigeria’s largest opposition party and raised profound questions about the stability of the nation’s political landscape.
