There was chaos at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja on Thursday as suspected thugs attacked some protesting members of the North Central APC midway through their protest.
Naija News learnt that the protesters had stormed the party secretariat to demand the resignation of the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, and allow the leadership seat previously occupied by Abdullahi Adamu to return to the North Central.
The protesters appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, to help influence the peaceful transition of the party chairmanship seat back to their region.
However, hoodlums stormed the party secretariat while the protesters were chanting solidarity songs and displaying banners that read, ‘Return APC National Chairmanship to North Central’ and ‘Dr. Ganduje, kindly resign to face your prosecution in Kano’.
Speaking to journalists after the protesters regrouped a few blocks away from the party’s secretariat, Plateau State Coordinator of the North Central APC Stakeholders, Hamisu Suleiman, expressed displeasure over the disruption of their protest.
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 Bola 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.”
Also speaking, the Nasarawa State chairman of North Central Forum, Sani Jigas, appealed to the governors of their zone to mount pressure on the president during their planned stakeholders meeting on Saturday.
He said, “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.”