Police seal off APC headquarters in Ekiti

The crisis rocking the Ekiti state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took a different dimension on Monday as police sealed the party’s secretariat.

The protesters, who claimed to be sympathetic to the aspiration of Kayode Fayemi, minister of mines and steel development, had besieged the secretariat on the Ajilosun- Ikere road where they announced the removal of the state executives led by Jide Awe.

The protesters also announced the immediate formation of a pro-Fayemi caretaker committee.

Armed policemen, however, arrived the secretariat shortly and drove everyone out before sealing off the party secretariat.

The protesters said they were at the secretariat to register their disapproval over the conduct of the members of the state working committee.

The protesters, who brandished placards with various inscriptions, also passed a vote of no confidence on Awe and the party’s spokesman, Taiwo Olatunbosun, alleging that they were supporting a particular aspirant.

Relying on Article 21 (7) of the party’s constitution, the protesters disbanded the SWC and set up a caretaker committee headed by Michael Egunjobi, APC chairman in Ise/Orun local government area.

The protesters also laced the gate of the party with fetish materials made from palm oil and egg.

Awe, who was said to have narrowly escaped assault by the irate party members, was ferried to safety from the secretariat by mobile policemen.

As of the time of filing this report, police vans were still stationed at the secretariat which was under lock and key.

Meanwhile, 27 aspirants have rejected the position canvassed by the national working committee of the party that the botched primary would continue from where it ended on Saturday.

Some of the aspirants led by Segun Oni, a former governor, on Monday met at a location in Ado Ekiti and rejected the position of the NWC that the committee which conducted the primary should return and complete the exercise.

The aspirants, who were reacting to a statement credited to Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of the party, said the ballot cast on Saturday in five local governments before the violence erupted had been rendered invalid.

The spokesperson for the group, Yaya-Kolade, said the fact that the votes were not counted, collated and announced at the venue, had rendered the process invalid.

She declared that the 27 aspirants would not accept attempts to validate unverified results of the few delegates that had cast their votes on Saturday neither would they accept the Tanko Al-Makura-led committee again as umpire.