Africa-Press – Nigeria. Following the violent chaos that rocked the stakeholders’ meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ondo State chapter, on Tuesday, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has denied his involvement in the crisis.
According to Aiyedatiwa, miscreants with no form of business at the state secretariat of the party were responsible for the chaos.
The Chairman of the party in the state, Ade Adetimehin, was beaten and injured along with other party chieftains after some hoodlums alleged to be members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) stormed the secretariat in Akure, the state capital.
The injured chieftains of the party, who are currently hospitalised, accused the governor of sponsoring the hoodlums to disrupt the stakeholders’ meeting.
Meanwhile, Aiyedatiwa, who led party leaders from across the state to a parallel stakeholders’ meeting with members of the congress committees from the national secretariat of the party, disclosed that the initial plan for a 10 a.m. meeting on Tuesday was never formalised, as he had requested it be moved to 2 p.m. to allow him and other top officials, including the Speaker and Deputy Governor, to attend.
While stressing his commitment to due process and denying any animosity towards the congresses, Aiyedatiwa attributed the violence to factional disputes over candidacy, stressing that the earlier incident was a gathering of rival supporters rather than an official party meeting.
He said, “Normally, we have stakeholders’ meetings, and as the governor, I am always in attendance, alongside the speaker and the deputy governor. All of us are always present at every stakeholder’s meeting.
“In the first quarter of this year, we had one in January before the anniversary of the state. We had 60 persons per local government. But this one was an impromptu stakeholders’ meeting because of the congresses at the ward and local government levels.
“Later on, I got a call from one of them saying there were some problems around, or some miscreants around the party secretariat.
“I asked him to call the Commissioner of Police, and I also called the Commissioner of Police myself to ensure the place was protected because I was going to attend the meeting. I asked that security operatives be deployed to protect the place.”
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