We're Going Through Hell, Assaulted- PDP Governors Cry Out
Governors elected on the platform of Nigeria’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accused security operatives and “impostors” of subjecting them to physical molestation and tear gas during a chaotic confrontation at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the incident, Bauchi State Governor and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Senator Bala Mohammed, described the treatment meted out to elected governors as unacceptable and a dangerous assault on democracy.
“We have been tear-gassed and molested as governors by impostors who were expelled by the convention,” Governor Mohammed said in a widely circulated video. “This is unbelievable in a democratic setting.”
Eyewitnesses and video footage showed heavy police presence around Wadata Plaza, the PDP national secretariat as rival factions within the party struggled for control of the premises.
One group, widely believed to be backed by Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, reportedly barred governors and other party leaders aligned with a different faction from entering the building.
The confrontation is the latest episode in the prolonged leadership crisis that has paralyzed the PDP amid the controversial continuation in office of officials perceived to be loyal to Minister Wike.
Governors opposed to the Wike group have insisted that the current occupants of the secretariat are no longer legitimate officers of the party following decisions taken at national convention that held in Ibadan.
Sources within the PDP Governors’ Forum told reporters that the governors had gone to the secretariat to hold a legitimate stakeholders’ meeting but were met with locked gates and aggressive resistance. Tear gas canisters were reportedly deployed to disperse the governors’ entourage, forcing them to address journalists outside the premises.
In strong terms, the governors accused the All Progressives Congress-led federal government of using state apparatus to cripple the opposition and enthrone a de facto one-party state.
“We are going through hell as an opposition party in Nigeria today,” Governor Bala Mohammed said. “Democracy is under severe threat, and the international community must not stand by while Nigeria slides into full-blown authoritarianism.”
The Nigeria Police Force has not commented on the use of tear gas against serving state governors.
The incident has heightened fears that the internal PDP crisis, which began after the 2023 general election, is now being exploited to weaken the country’s main opposition ahead of future electoral cycles. Analysts warn that continued escalation could further erode public confidence in Nigeria’s democratic institutions.
As the PDP remains fractured between pro- and anti-Wike camps, today’s drama at Wadata Plaza has once again thrust Nigeria’s troubled opposition politics into the international spotlight, with growing calls for global democratic institutions to pay closer attention to what many now describe as systematic suppression of dissent
