The unending crisis which has riddled the All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country took a defining dimension, yesterday, as the party held congresses nationwide to elect its new executive officers at ward levels amidst protests and violence.
The leaders of the party across the country had mobilised members to ensure that their loyalists were elected but not without stiff resistance from politicians, who belong to opposing camps within the party.
In Rivers State, the exercise was inconclusive even as supporters of the senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Magnus Abe, protested on major streets of Port Harcourt to condemn the exercise.
The protesters marched through the Eastern Bypass axis of the Rivers State capital, chanting war songs, even as they claimed that (they) Abe supporters were sidelined from the ward congresses in the state.
Abe regretted that there was no ward congress of the APC in the 344 wards of the 23 local government areas in Rivers State.
Report says security has been deployed at the Rivers State Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress in Port Harcourt.
Our correspondent reports that armed policemen and other security operatives were mobilised to the area after some protesters became violent and vandalised the APC office.
Police have also picked up the member representing Emohua-Ikwerre Federal Constituency, Elder Chidi Wehioka.
The Rivers State Police Command is yet to explain why Wehioka was arrested.
Earlier, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, had denied claims by a section of the party that materials for the local government congresses have been hijacked.
In a statement signed by its spokesman, Parry Benson, shortly after the congress, last Saturday in Port Harcourt, Abe accused the leadership of the party in the state of going against the guidelines for the ward congress, by allowing contestants to pick forms on the day of the congress.
“The leadership of APC in Rivers State countered itself by issuing two statements today, Saturday, May 5, 2018, where it urged contestants to pick forms for the ward congress.
Abe, who is also an APC governorship aspirant, said, “The development is against the guidelines of the party’s congresses, which said the purchase of nomination forms should end 24 hours before the commencement of the congress”.
The lawmaker further described the development as a fight against internal democracy in the APC, and called on the national leadership of the party to intervene in the matter.
According to Abe, “Our worry is that some leaders of the party deliberately want to obstruct the ward, local government and state congresses.
“We are appealing to the national leadership of the party to do what is right to ensure a free, fair, peaceful and credible congress in Rivers State”, the senator added.
The Tide reports that while the congress was alleged to be ongoing, some armed policemen and other security operatives were mobilized to the Rivers State Secretariat of the APC, along Forces Avenue in Old GRA, Port Harcourt, after some protesters became violent and vandalized the party’s office, last Saturday.
Reacting, the state APC Chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, condemned the attack on the party’s state secretariat, describing the incident as “barbaric and unbelievable”.
Ikanya told newsmen in Port Harcourt, shortly after inspecting the destroyed secretariat, that it was wrong to attack the state office when congresses were being held at the wards.
At the various local governments visited, The Tide reports total chaos, confusion, violence and in some cases, shooting, with the congress not holding in many wards due mainly to disagreements over delegates’ lists.
Reacting to the violence and killings, the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike condoled with the families of those who lost their loved ones in the course of the fracas preparatory to the APC congress at the weekend.
Wike said that it was unfortunate that some politicians do not understand that politics was not war.
In a statement, last Friday, Wike was quoted as saying: “Politics is not a do or die affair. All politicians must learn to play politics by established rules “.
The governor said that the fracas that claimed innocent lives ahead of the Rivers APC congress underscores what Rivers people have continued to say about the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and their Commander, ACP Akin Fakorede, who has been indicted by INEC for election rigging and violence.
He pleaded with APC members to continue to see the state as one, pointing out that it was necessary for everyone to maintain the peace that the state currently enjoys.
The governor warned hoteliers who allow their premises to be used as hideouts for illegal political activities to desist or face appropriate sanctions from the Rivers State Government.
In Delta State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship aspirant for ward 10 (Jeremiah III) in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. Jeremiah Oghoveta was stabbed to death following an unprovoked attack on him allegedly by a yet to be identified member of his party.
The incident was said to have occurred prior to the commencement of the congress to the elect executive committee for the party at the ward level, last Saturday.
A source said the party chieftain was stabbed by the assailant while waiting for materials and party officials to arrive for the conduct of the congress, adding that there was already a harmonised list of executive members to douse tension before the unprovoked attack.
In Ekiti, former Governor Kayode Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State have disagreed over the call for a cancellation of the governorship primary that held on Saturday.
While Fayemi wanted the results of the election so far cast by delegates from five local governments upheld, the state APC Chairman, Chief Jide Awe, called for the immediate cancellation of the exercise.
The primary was suspended indefinitely amidst violence that broke out at Oluyemo Kayode Stadium in Ado Ekiti where the primary held.
Trouble started when agents of some of the aspirants complained that the electoral process was being manipulated.
This paved a way for some thugs to attack the ballot boxes and smashed them.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Awe blamed the APC Election Committee chaired by the Governor of Nasarawa State, Umar Al-Makura, for not carrying members of the state executive along in the conduct of the exercise.
He said, “There is no way you can conduct a primary without allowing State Executive Council to have a say. The aspirants were not happy. There are lots of lessons to learn as a party.”
Awe called for an outright cancellation of the disrupted election.
In Anambra, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Sunday evening escaped mob attack at a meeting of the All Progressives Congress in a hotel in Awka, Anambra State.
The meeting, it was gathered, was for the harmonisation of the results of the party’s ward congress held last Saturday.
As gunshots pervaded the scene, Ngige was whisked away by security agencies.
Security personnel repeatedly fired repelling shorts into the air to scare the mob who charged at him.
They alleged that the minister was trying to manipulate the result of the ward congress in his favour.
A member of the state’s ward congress committee, who was identified as Ali was not that lucky to escape as he was beaten to a pulp and stripped naked on allegations that he was among those drafted in the state to work in favour of Ngige.
The candidate of the APC in the November 18, 2017 governorship election in Anambra, Dr Tony Nwoye, had openly accused Ngige in the meeting of plotting to hijack the party in the state.
In the Cross River chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC has postponed its ward congresses indefinitely following what party stakeholders described as hijack of electoral materials supposed to be meant for conduct of the failed ward congress led by Standley Okezie six- man congress committee from the National Secretariat which was alleged to have been held hostage by some aggrieved party men.
Members of the six-man committee were held hostage yesterday at the Danic Hotel, for over seven hours by aggrieved members of the party that accused them of aiding a faction of the party to rig the ward congresses that were scheduled to hold in various wards of the state.
As early as 8am the party secretariat at barracks road by Marian was besieged by some aggrieved party faithful who claimed to have had a premonition that something strange was going to happen.
However, materials for the conduct of the congress were not on ground, a development which mounted tension and rowdiness as most of them moved to the hotel.
The likes of the Senator representing Cross River Central at the national assembly, Sen. John Owan Enoh, the National Vice Chairman, South South, Ntufam Hiliard Eta, APC governorship aspirant, Venatious Ikem, Zonal Vice Chairmann Central, Mr. Cletus Obun, former governor of the state, Mr. Clement Ebri, Special Assistant on Prosecution, Chief Okoi Obon-Obla and hundreds of party stalwarts mounted much pressure on the congress committee to sub-pedal with the exercise to pave way for emergency stakeholders meeting at the secretariat of the party so that grievances of some aggrieved members be addressed.
However, in Edo State, the congress was held across the 192 wards but the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, did not take part in the exercise at his ward 2 in the Oredo Local Government Area where he registered.
The APC in Oyo State could not hold its ward congress as scheduled, following an outbreak of violence at its state secretariat at Oke-Ado, Ibadan, as gun-toting thugs invaded the secretariat, disrupting a pre-congress stakeholders’ meeting slated for the venue.
The crisis, which became bloody, leaving some leaders of the party injured, led to the chairman of the Congress Committee, Alhaji Musa Halilu-Ahmed, shifting the congress to today, after consultation with stakeholders of the party who reconvened at the secretariat after the violent disruption.