The governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has been postponed indefinitely following the violence which trailed the exercise on Saturday at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti.
The leader of the APC team conducting the exercise and Nasarawa governor, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, hurriedly entered his vehicle and left the venue after an emergency meeting with all the 33 aspirants on the way forward failed to yield result.
Though Al-Makura did not formally brief newsmen on the agreement reached with the aspirants, NAN learnt that the need to extract commitment from them for a peaceful conduct in a rescheduled exercise dominated the discussions.
Confirming the postponement, two of the aspirants, Mr Bimbo Daramola and former Speaker, Mr Femi Bamisile, said it was a unanimous verdict at the meeting that the process should be suspended indefinitely.
“There was an issue somewhere about the exercise and they raised observation about sharp practices that had compromised the process which led to protest and the feeling was that the process should be suspended to avoid bloodshed,’’ Daramola said.
NAN reports that only delegates from four local governments had concluded their voting when violence erupted .
Trouble started at about 5.30 pm when some agents raised observations about how the process was being allegedly compromised , accusing some security agents of dictating to delegates who they should vote for.
The resultant violence led to shots being fired sporadically into the air by security agents when the situation was deteriorating, resulting in many scampering for safety.
It was learnt that all efforts made by members of the Al-Makura committee that supervised the primary to restore order failed.
The Director General of Babafemi Ojudu Campaign Organisation, Chief Ranti Adebisi, and some agents had complained that the process had been compromised
