By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA

Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, Gov. Bala Mohammed, has expressed the determination of the party leadership to protect Nigeria’s democracy, even at the expense of their lives.

Mohammed stated this while speaking with newsmen during the clash between two PDP factions at the national secretariat in Abuja.

“We are not just here to cause trouble; this is our own place and some imposters who have been expelled by the convention, which is the highest decision-making organ of the party, came to cause commotion.

“You can see the minister of FCT coming in person, being backed by the police.

“We are surprised because at the point when the police allowed us in, our chairman praised them for impartiality. But here we are here, to sit and see what will happen.

“We have been molested in spite of our immunity in time and whatever that we have, as leaders in our own right, with our chairman.

“We don’t want to cause trouble to anybody. Yes, we are in the opposition. We should be allowed to survive,” he said.

The Bauchi governor alleged that PDP was being destroyed by people from within the party, maintaining that relevant laws had been invoked to get them out.

“We are here to inaugurate our independence, and we don’t know what is happening. We are not going anywhere, even if they will kill us, we are not going anywhere.

“We oblige our chairman’s invitation, maybe you will hear more from him. But certainly we are pushing it. But this thing is getting out of hands. Enough is enough,” Mohammed said.

Also speaking, the new PDP National Chairman, Taminu Turaki, said they were determined to protect their mandate and the country’s democracy.

“We are willing to lay down our lives to protect our office, to protect our democracy, to protect our mandate,” he said.

Turaki said that his team had visited the FCT Commissioner of Police to inform him of their new NWC meeting when they heard that the other faction was also planning a meeting at the same venue.

He quoted the commissioner of police as promising to protect them.

Turaki expressed surprise that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who, according to him, had been expelled by the party, was granted access to the party secretariat’s premises.

Speaking before the crisis erupted, the suspended National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, described the security deployment to the party secretariat as a routine arrangement whenever the party was holding its NEC or BoT meeting.

“You can see there’s no problem. So if we start our meeting and they come here to disrupt our meeting, they become intruders because we’re already here.

“I don’t see anybody sensible enough to come and disrupt a meeting that’s ongoing. If anybody wants to meet, they can meet anywhere. It’s allowed, but we’re here,” he said.

Anyanwu insisted that he remained the party’s national secretary until Dec. 8, adding that any of the party’s correspondence to INEC must be signed by him.

While maintaining that there was no national convention in Ibadan, he said that two-thirds of the states’ delegates were not at the purported convention.

“On what premise are you expelling us? What platform are you using to expel us? The convention that never held?

“Every communication to INEC for any congress/ convention, I must sign it. I never communicated any letter to INEC for any convention. So, there was no convention. As a matter of fact, there was no convention anywhere.

“It’s very clear that any convention must be monitored, supervised by INEC. These things were not done,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as at the time of filling this report, the two warring factions were still at the party secretariat, while firing of teargas by security agencies continued. (NAN)