Tension erupted at the national headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja on Tuesday after supporters of two rival factions clashed, prompting police to fire teargas to restore order.

Both the faction loyal to the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, and the newly constituted National Working Committee (NWC) led by Kabiru Turaki had scheduled meetings at the PDP’s Wadata Plaza headquarters, setting the stage for confrontation.

Trouble began when Samuel Anyanwu, secretary of the Wike-aligned faction, arrived at the secretariat with supporters for their planned Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) sessions. Members of the Turaki-led leadership were also present for their own engagements.

As rival supporters exchanged insults and scuffles broke out, police officers struggled to keep the situation from spiralling. At one point, officers ordered everyone out of the premises in a bid to separate the warring groups.

When the clashes intensified, operatives deployed teargas, forcing politicians, staff, and journalists to flee the area. Outside the secretariat, supporters wielding sticks and other objects broke into protest songs as they rallied behind their respective camps.

The PDP, once Nigeria’s dominant opposition party, has been embroiled in deep internal crises for nearly two years. The latest confrontation follows a controversial convention held in Ibadan over the weekend by one faction of the party, where Wike and his allies were purportedly expelled.

The Wike group, however, rejected the Ibadan gathering as illegitimate and dismissed the expulsion as meaningless, further deepening the party’s widening divisions.