Yakubu Busari, Jos
Pandemonium broke out in many wards of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State as irate youth clashed during Councillorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, leading to the indefinite suspension of the election.
In the elections at several areas monitored by this medium within the LG, clashes verging on bloodbath was averted in some wards owning to internal wrangling and protests by aggrieved members who openly registering their displeasure against the impositions of candidates all through the voting exercise.
A group of concerned APC members from Bukuru ward of the LG who spoke to this medium on phone revealed that the atmosphere brought voting to a standstill as officials could not contain the melee.
There were allegations that the Management Committee Chairman sponsored unidentified persons to cause confusion when they realised that their candidate would lose the said primaries conducted on Saturday.
Hon. Gidiom Davou Dung, a chairmanship aspirant said he narrowly escaped death in the hands of the thugs, while another, Ahmadu Bello sustained various degrees of wounds . Ibrahim Galadima was not so lucky as he was bitten in many parts of his body before his agent smuggled him through the mob as the fighting continued.
He also blamed party stakeholders for not been alive to their duties in conformity with the laid dawn rules of the party’s constitution
Responding, the State Financial Secretary of the party, Alh Ustaz G. Ibrahim disclosed that the party has so far received one official petition and one verbal complaint in two Local Governments after Saturday primaries.
Alh Ibrahim in his interview with this medium traced the crises in some polling units to the overwhelming turn up of the teeming supporters.
“We never envisage the type crowd of party loyalists at the grassroots level until this councillorship primaries exposed us to that fact,” he said, adding that the two Local Governments that reported to the Party Secretariat with petition indicated manipulation, rigging and imposition of candidates.
Arguing that APC wards primaries recorded huge success with the number of party faithful that storm their polling units and alluded to this as indication that victory for the party was assured in the LG poll,
Ibrahim said the election has been successfully held across the state because the party has no faction and described those who carried dangerous weapons to polling units as opposition members who were smuggled in to create conflict.
