The crisis rocking the Kogi state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) continued on Saturday as parallel ward congresses were held across the 239 wards of the state.
Although the exercise was peaceful in the state as both factions settled for consensus arrangements in many of the wards, the two groups claimed victory in the exercise.
A faction of the party in the state is loyal to the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, while the second faction led by the state chairman, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo is loyal to the Audu/Faleke political group.
When Saturday Tribune went round some of the wards in Lokoja, Kogi, Ajaokuta and Adavi local government it was discovered that people were still waiting for materials for the Congress as at 1 pm.
The materials were discovered not to have been brought to the designated centres for the Congress because of the consensus arrangements put in place.
However, Ametuo after the exercise declared that majority of the candidates from the Audu/Faleke group won in the contest.
He said he was glad to announce that APC members came out in their thousands to elect the Ward executives across the State with members of the Audu/Faleke group running away with a victory.
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“Having consulted widely with our people and critical stakeholders of the APC on our initial boycott plans and received assurances, we directed our members to come out in their droves to participate in the congresses today and am glad to say that the congresses went well without hitches across the state with our members recording massive victory”.
But the acting chairman of the party, Ahovi Ibrahim, debunked the claims by Ametuo, saying the faction was never on the field for the Congress.
He said the exercise was conducted with members coming out in their thousands to elect their leaders at the ward level but the Audu/Faleke group members were not on ground.
Ahovi said, “We had our congresses today (Saturday) and it was peaceful across the 21 local government areas of the state, our members came out in large number and it was witnessed by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and even men of the Nigerian Army were drafted in some instances.
“There was nowhere we saw the Ametuo group, although INEC confirmed that they wrote them that they wanted to conduct Congress, they were not on the ground at the venues they gave”.