Some protesters on Wednesday shut
down the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.
They disrupted activities,
barricaded the street and entrance, and chased away staff and a handful of
security operatives on duty.
The protesters, who alleged
attempts to impose candidates by the national leadership of the party, during
the senatorial and House of Representatives primaries held, yesterday, called
for the immediate resignation of the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
Displaying posters with various
inscriptions like ‘Oshiomhole stay clear of FCT primaries; We want indirect
primaries; Oshiomhole, leadership is not activism; and Oshiomhole destroying
APC,’ among others, the protesters went violent and destroyed billboards,
barricaded the major road and caused traffic gridlock, Channels TV reports.
The irate crowd, who had stormed
the national secretariat in the early hours of yesterday, defied the security
agents who stormed the secretariat in several operational patrol vehicles.
They sang and danced along the
road.
The protest, which was initially
largely peaceful, later went out of control, when the angry crowd tried to take
control of the entrance of the secretariat gate, and, in the process,
barricaded the Blantyre street leading to the APC national secretariat.
Spokesman of the group Usman
Mohammed Karshi told newsmen that the group was on a mission to protest
injustice and imposition of mode of primary election in the FCT; an original
inhabitants of the territory. They also called for Oshiomhole’s resignation,
and doubted if he was not working for opposition parties.
“We are here to protest
injustice. We are here to protest imposition. We are here to sound it loud and
clear that we are solidly in support of president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. We
are here; tell all who have ears that, in the FCT, results will not be written.
We are here to state it loud and clear that FCT APC is going for indirect
primary.
“We are here to make it clear to
Oshiomhole that we are comrades and that was why we voted for him as chairman.
So, we are appealing to his sense of reason. He should be reasonable to give us
what we want. FCT APC rejects direct primary in FCT,” he said.
“NEC was very clear about it that
all should go back to their states, and chose whatever method they want. That
it is either you go for direct, indirect primaries or consensus.
“The FCT leaders, all nine
senatorial and 15 House of Representatives aspirants met and agreed that FCT is
going for indirect primary. Why should Oshiomhole and the National Working
Committee change it? It is unacceptable. You cannot write results here in the
name of direct primaries. It is not possible,” he said.
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