NO fewer than 50 people were injured in Akure, Ondo state capital, during the state parallel congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) organised by a faction of the party at BTO hall along Roadblock area of Akure.
The lawmaker representing Ifedore/Idanre federal constituency, Hon. Bamidele Baderinwa, Osun state Commissioner for Regional Integration, Hon. Bola Ilori, the Director General of Olusegun Abraham Campaign Group, Kunle Eko Davies, and a Chieftain of the party, Tolu Babaleye, fled for their lives, as suspected thugs invaded the venue of the parallel congress.
Bolarinwa was beaten to pulp with his clothes torn while security operatives at the venue of looked the other way as the hoodlums operated unhindered.
Some of the delegates who had seated at the hall after accreditation, waiting to cast their votes were beaten out of the hall and chased away.
The hoodlums who destroyed the hall and inflicting bodily harm on journalists at the venue, also shot sporadically into the air to scare away people from the venue of the congress.
Some members of the factional group alleged members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) of being sponsored to disrupt the congress.
The hoodlums, numbering about 100, blocked the major roads and made a bonfire at the venue of the parallel congress while they hurled stones at the building.
They factional members of the party, however, regrouped at a hotel in Igbara Oke in Ifedore local government area of the state where a factional chairman, Idowu Otetubi, emerged.
Meanwhile, the APC faction loyal to the state government held its congress at the International Events and Culture Centre (The Dome), where 1,015 delegates voted and elected Hon. Ade Adetimehin as the new Chairman of the party.
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The Congress was witnessed by a five-man Committee headed by Mr. Matthew Omegara, who lauded the party for its peaceful conduct and its maturity.
He commended the peace in the party saying, I don’t think there is any space for any party to exist in Ondo State. When we were coming, we were sceptical of what we were going to meet,”
The state governor, Mr. Akeredolu, who identified and declared all the delegates as legitimate members of the party, said “there is no way in any human endeavour that you can have perfection. It is not possible.
“The only perfect being is God. Therefore, I want to take responsibility for whatever happens here. If anybody sits at any other place, he or she is counterfeit.”
The governor urged the party members to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and accept the outcome of the Congress, saying, “whatever that happens here or whatever has happened in your ward, let us take it with equanimity. God has plans for us. Why are we worried? Whatever will be will be. Your own time, if it is not today, it will come.”
In his speech, Adetimehin promised to take the party to a greater height and sought the support of all members to reposition the party in the state and expressed optimism that the party remains a party to be in the state.