Chaos in Akure: Thugs Storm APC Secretariat, Disrupt Ondo Reps Primary Collation

Tension erupted in Akure on Saturday as political thugs, allegedly sponsored by a disqualified All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives aspirant, stormed the party’s state secretariat and disrupted the collation of primary election results.

The attack forced the seven-member National Assembly Primary Election Committee, led by Hon. Iboroma Harry Dabibi, to be evacuated by security personnel.

Ondo APC Chairman Kolawole Babatunde, other party executives, electoral officers, delegates, and supporters also fled through the back door to safety.

Eyewitnesses revealed that the thugs invaded the venue and ordered the committee chairman to stop the announcement of winners.

“It was a disqualified aspirant who mobilised thugs to the venue. The atmosphere became very tense,” a source said. “People were leaving because nobody wanted the situation to get out of hand.”

The confusion deepened when a committee member received a phone call instructing a halt to proceedings.

A witness who was live on Facebook recounted: “They were about to announce a federal constituency result when someone on the phone said the process should be stopped. We all thought it was the governor, but later realised it was allegedly from someone else in the state government.”

Another source alleged that the thugs had arrived before the committee and strategically positioned themselves to cause chaos. “They had mobilised boys from different wards.

They were shouting and threatening to disrupt everything. It became unsafe for many people to remain there.”

In response, the Ondo APC has set up a Primary Appeal Committee to hear petitions from aggrieved aspirants.

State Secretary Alex Kalejaye announced in a statement that the committee would begin sitting at the party secretariat from today, adding that the panel was established “in the spirit of fairness and justice” and would continue until all grievances are addressed.