Hell was let loose at the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday when protesters from the Rivers State chapter of the party stormed the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the party in protest against perceived injustice against them during last Saturday’s House of Assembly primaries in the state.

The protesters, it was gathered, started arriving at the secretariat as early as 7:30 a.m. and had taken over the entire premises even before the arrival of the secretariat staff.

They displayed various placards with inscriptions such as “Wike can’t be our Governor”, “We want clearance to contest 2015 elections”, “Give us back our money”, “We are tired of two-man state exco”, “Felix Obuh must go”, “Wike has bought the soul of Rivers PDP”, “Criminals have been cleared to be PDP aspirants in Rivers State,” among others.

The protesters clustered and sang in front of the party secretariat.

However, the environment became charged when majority of the protesters who openly admited being ex-militants went violent.

Initially they allowed workers into the party secretariat but became violent around 9 a.m. when they locked all three gates leading into the premises.

They stopped people from going into the party headquarters or leaving the premises.

They immediately divided themselves into different teams with a team made up of hundreds of protesters taking charge at the gate, harassing anyone who made an attempt at entering the party secretariat.

Another team started making noise and dancing round the Zone 5 area, singing war songs and cursing party officials for allegedly selling the Rivers State chapter of the party to former Education Minister, Nyesom Wike.

Another group made up of stern looking able-bodied men and ladies sat on the main road, and after consuming several bottles of alcohol and some other spirits, carried a casket and started chatting war songs also in their local Kalabari dialect.

At about 9:30 a.m., the environment became charged the more as the protesters took their agitation beyond the PDP secretariat, molesting anyone who tried to enter the premises of a bank situated opposite the PDP secretariat, as well as other business premises within the Wuze Zone 5 Area where the party secretariat was located.

All staff of the party secretariat who were already in their offices ready to commence the day’s duty quickly vacated the secretariat and fled for their lives.

While the staff were trying to find their ways out of the secretariat, the protesters tried to stop them from leaving.

A police inspector with the name tag, Dauda Kato, who tried to help the staff was hit with a stick in the face by a hefty looking protester and was left with a bloodied face as he had a deep cut at his right eyebrow.

Most of the escapee PDP staff were seen making frantic phone calls to their colleagues who had not arrived for work, informing them of the situation on ground and asking them to stay away in their own interest.

Some others who had arrived and were prevented from entering the party secretariat stayed about 500 meters away from the building watching from afar the activities of the protesters.

However, by 10:15 a.m. a reinforcement of policemen about 70 in number were brought to the secretariat with a big police truck to complement those already on ground but they all could do nothing but watch helplessly as the protesters shouted, sang and danced round the area disturbing the peace of the environment.

Though, most of the policemen were carrying batons rather than guns, some of the irate protesters were seen charging toward the policemen bearing guns, daring the policemen to shoot at them.

While the protest raged, no member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party showed up while high placed staff like directors and their deputies also stayed away.

One of the protesters, Davis Saloka from Eleme constituency, who agreed to speak with the press said they were at the PDP secretariat to kick against “open robbery perpetrated against them by the PDP”.

Narrating his ordeal, he said 107 members of the party paid to obtain the expression of interest and nomination forms, but only 32 whom he said were “Wike’s boys” were given “dubious clearance” while the rest of them were summarily disqualified from the race.

“We all bought forms to participate in the PDP primary election but what we saw was out of the ordinary.

“We attended the screening exercise but we didn’t know our fate until Friday night when we saw a list pasted saying only 32 persons were cleared to participate in the election.

“We discovered that each person nominated from Wike’s camp was given clearance which gave them automatic ticket while the rest of us were screened out.

“The most annoying thing is that we were not told the reason why we were disqualified from the so- called party primary.

“It is more curious to note that all we saw was a list that was neither signed nor was it on a PDP letter head, but just contained the names of Wike’s boys as the only ones cleared to participate in the party primary,” he stated.

Another protester who identified himself as Jude Lawrence Nwibie from Kana Constituency II said he was disqualified for no reason.

He noted that he went through the screening exercise like his colleagues in accordance with the party’s guideline for the election, but was surprised that the result of the screening exercise was not made public.

He, however, said he was surprised to see a list of 32 persons pasted a night before the party primary with a caveat that they were the only ones cleared to contest the election.

He noted that they were not informed of any disqualification before the election, a tactics, he said, was adopted to deny them the right to appeal.

Late into the afternoon, the protesters were still in control of the party secretariat while majority of the staff abandoned the day’s work.  Policemen were still at the party’s secretariat pleading with them to calm down but to no avail.

 At about 1:15 p.m. a team of fully armed operatives of Department of State Services (DSS) came to the vicinity of in a Ford pickup van with Registration Number KUJ 619 AQ but did not stay close to the party secretariat.

They parked their vehicle about 300 meters away while waiting in the van.

At about 2:35 p.m., Kema Chikwe, National Women leader of the PDP, came to the party secretariat, but she was prevented from entering by the protesters who charged at her and called her names.

She was rescued by policemen and some party staff who provided security for her as she made her way to her car.

At about 4 p.m., Vice Chairman South South, Cairo Ojuigho, came around to plead with the protesters to vacate the party premises but they turned down his pleading.

The protesters insisted on having an audience with the National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, who they said has solution to their problems.

Ojuigho who left some minutes after promised to come back but was not seen again.

At 4:45 p.m., the leader of the police team made an attempt at pacifying the protesters as he pleaded with them to disperse but they ignored him.

At exactly 5:09 p.m., a command was issued on the police team leading to firing of tear gas at the protesters while gunshots were also fired into the air intermittently by the policemen to scare the protesters.

The protesters scampered for safety as the policemen pursued them. At the end 18 of them were arrested.

Speaking with newsmen afterwards, ASP Peter Okechukwu, FCT Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), denied the use of force on the protesters.

“We did not use force or violence in dispersing the protesters. We gave them enough time and tried to negotiate with them but they resisted. Mind you, we contacted the leadership of PDP before we took a final decision on them,” he said.