The inauguration of executive members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State, at the weekend, turned violent leaving some members injured.
Five members were reported injured in the fracas.
Our reporter who visited the area on Sunday learnt that two of them, who were in critical condition, were allegedly political thugs loyal to the LG chairman, Malam Abdullahi Maje, while the other three persons were thugs loyal to the faction of the House of Representatives member from the area, Abubakar Lado.
Aso Chronicle gathered that trouble started when the Lado faction attempted to hijack the inauguration by insisting that only those loyal to the legislator were inaugurated.
A party member loyal to the present council chairman who sought for anonymity confided in our reporter that the party in the state had agreed that all serving LGA party executives in the state should be returned through affirmation, while those from areas that had problems, like Suleja, should be selected through consensus.
“It was in that spirit that a consensus was agreed that Lado’s faction which hitherto controlled the exco members here in Suleja, should now present six party ward leaders out of 10 in the area, and also 40 percent in the local government party exco, while that of the council chairman, Abdullahi Maje, should field the remaining four party ward chairmen and 60 percent in the LGA party exco,” he explained.
He said the rep member allegedly refused to honour the consensus during the inauguration, insisting that all the exco members loyal to him should rather be sworn in and inaugurated.
All efforts by the police to intervene in the confrontation between the two factions was not successful. Eventually, the police locked down the party office by 5pm on Saturday evening.
When contacted, the Suleja police area commander, CSP Ilyasu Kwarbai, confirmed the incident, adding that the matter had since been reported to the state police command in Minna for further action.
