From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
There was pandemonium and security lapses at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja as anti and pro-protesters engage each other in a free for all fight over the future of the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
The anti-Ganduje protesters, majorly comprising APC stakeholders from North Central geopolitical zone, while the pro-Ganduje camp were suspected thugs mobilised to counter the protest.
The protesters had stormed the party’s headquarters in the afternoon to demand the resignation of the APC National Chairman, Ganduje and allow the North Central zone to reclaim the headship seat, previously occupied by Abdullahi Adamu.
The protest was a renewal of the series of aborted moves and legal fireworks staged to remove national chairman from office, which he survived by the whiskers
Displaying placards and displaying banners with various inscriptions that read; “Return APC National Chairmanship to North Central” and “Dr Ganduje, kindly resign to face your prosecution in Kano”, the protesters, chanting solidarity songs, appealed to President Bola Tinubu to help influence the process of a peaceful transition of the party’s seat back to their region.
However, hell was let loose few minutes into their demonstration, as the peaceful procession was scuttled by suspected hoodlums who swooped on the aggrieved party members, beating them with sticks as they scampered for safety in different directions to escape the thugs.
Addressing journalists after regrouping a few blocks away from the party’s secretariat, Plateau State Coordinator of the North Central APC Stakeholders, Hamisu Suleiman, lamented the molestation meted out to them, stressing that they will not be discouraged until ‘justice is served.’
He said: “We came here only to be attacked by thugs sponsored by the party. They did not only beat us, they stripped us of the banners and drove our people away from the APC secretariat. Today, we are here to protest the unfair treatment meted out to people of the North Central. This is because the national chairmanship of the APC was mistakenly given to Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
“We are therefore calling the attention of our dear President Tinubu to correct the anomaly. We know that he will listen to us. The APC chairman position is supposed to be zoned according to the constitution of the party and the same constitution confers the position on us. Unfortunately, it was zoned to the North West and we will not accept it.
“We are here for justice and justice must be served. I am calling the attention of all the stakeholders of the party to return our mandate. This is why we are protesting here today. It is our right and nobody can take it away from us,” he said.
Also speaking, Sani Jigas, who identified himself as the Nasarawa State chairman of North Central Forum, appealed to the governors of their zone to mount pressure on the president during their planned stakeholders meeting on Saturday.
“This is our mandate. It is well known to everybody. It is well known to everybody that there is a consensus at the national convention that the APC chairmanship should be zoned to the North Central. We are still agitating for that.
“We are not afraid of their thugs. We will remain here until justice is done. We are also calling on our governors because we are aware of the meeting of North Central governors and stakeholders in Lafia by next week,” he said.