Police halt New PDP confab in Bauchi

The leadership of the Kawu Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party said that the Police stopped the meeting of the group in Bauchi at the weekend, citing 'an order from higher authorities' as the reason for the intervention.

A detachment of armed mobile policemen sealed off the Awala Hotel venue of the meeting and prevented the officials and members of the PDP faction in the state from gaining entrance.

The Protem Chairman of the new PDP in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Isa, said that the faction had written a letter on Thursday, giving the police 48 hour notice as required by law.

Isa said, 'We had written a letter to the state Commissioner of Police and all relevant security operatives in the state since Thursday, September 19, 2013 and asked for their permission to hold the meeting, we gave them 48 hours notice as required by law.

'On Friday, our executives were invited by the CP; after our discussions with him, he allowed us to hold our consultative meeting and pledged to deploy policemen to protect us and warned us not to do anything that would lead to the breach of the peace

'But as of this morning in our effort to meet with various stakeholders and other elders of the party, we arrived at the venue and met a team of armed mobile policemen, led by the Commissioner of Police himself. They cordoned the Awalah Hotel, venue of our meeting; when police commissioner saw me, he called me chairman and said they have order from above to stop the meeting.'

However, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Haruna Mohammed, said that he was not aware of any letter from the new PDP.

He said, 'I am not aware that the New PDP had applied to hold a meeting in Bauchi, and I am not aware that Police stop them'. - Punch.