TheCable

The police say they deployed officers in the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order.

Officers, who said they were acting on the “orders from above”, stormed the party headquarters on Tuesday afternoon and asked staff and journalists who were already in the building to go out.

A few journalists were later allowed in under the condition that they would not conduct any interview inside the party secretariat.

But in a statement, Frank Mba, force public relations officer, said the police officers were not at the secretariat to seal off the place.

“Personnel of the Nigeria Police Force have been deployed to the National Secretariat of the All Progressive Congress, located at Blantyre Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja. The deployment is a proactive move by the Force to maintain peace and ensure there is no breakdown of law and order at the secretariat,” Mba said.

“The presence of police personnel at the Secretariat is not to seal-up (seal off) the complex as has been reported in some quarters but rather to prevent any untoward situation within and around the APC national secretariat.

“Members of the APC as well staff of the Secretariat are therefore at liberty to conduct their legitimate businesses, in and around the secretariat as always.”

The party’s leadership crisis took a new turn after an appeal court in Abuja upheld the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC.

Abiola Ajimobi, former governor of Oyo state, had been named acting chairman of the APC but Victor Giadom, deputy national scribe of the party, kicked against it, declaring himself the acting national chairman.

National working committee (NWC) members loyal to the former Oyo governor appointed Hillard Eta, APC vice-chairman south-south, as acting chairman “due to Ajimobi’s unavoidable absence.”

While Giadom nullified the disqualification of Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, from the party’s governorship primary, the “Ajimobi NWC” reversed it.

President Muhammadu Buhari has held meetings with some governors and Senate President Ahmad Lawan as part of measures to resolve the crisis.