The National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was Tuesday disrupted with supporters of the national chairman, Shehu Gabam and those loyal to the 2023 presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo, engaging violent clashes.
Blueprint correspondent who witnessed the fracas reports that the gate of the national headquarters in Abuja was pulled down in the ensuing melee.
The fight, which started at 11: 20 am at the party headquarters on 16 Nairobi Street, snowballed into serious commotion during which many were beaten,leaving some with various degree of injuries.
Both the security personnel stationed at the premises and the thugs allegedly invited to help ensure peace were able to overcome those loyal to Adebayo and the national publicity secretary, Rufus Aiyenigba camp.
Some of the journalists invited to cover the NWC meeting were not left out in the maltreatment.
While the Arise TV had its camera seized and later returned, the Punch reporter was manhandled and his clothes torn for refusing to give them the phone he used to record the commotion.
At the time of this report, national chairman, Gabam, had taken charge of the office as he invited policemen to maintain peace and security at the premises.
The policemen were seen appealing to people to leave the premises, but the thugs resisted and claimed they were members of the party.
Meanwhile, a statement by the party spokesman Aiyenigba, said the national chairman, Gabam, along with two other party chieftains were suspended from the party for various misdemeanors.
Mr Gabam, however, debunked his purported suspension saying, it is fake and blamed the new coalition for the current crisis in his party.
He made the claim in his office at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday while hosting some of the party’s NWC members who were in his office.
“I think we had this crisis before. It is now rearing its head. And some of us understand where it is coming from.
“Because this coalition and some of the people in the coalition who believe that at all costs, they either get SDP or create confusion around SDP. So many forces from so many fronts see SDP as very, very deadly. Or very, very strong that they cannot maneuver over,” he said.