From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
There was pandemonium at the headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, yesterday, as security details attached to the party’s National Chairman, Abdulahi Adamu, and members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) engaged each other in a scuffle.
The secretariat had degenerated into a battle ground with the police releasing several canisters of teargas to disperse the angry NANS members sending the secretariat staff to scamper into safety.
Security was immediately beefed up around the secretariat after combined security forces guarding the headquarters went physical, including using brute force on the disgruntled NANS members at the secretariat to brief the party’s leadership on its election scheduled for today.
A witness at the secretariat told Daily Sun that the conflict broke out when the chairman’s security details, acting on his order, tried to stop the students from gaining access to the ongoing National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.
Narrating the incident to Daily Sun, a security source explained that Segun Dada, an aspirant for the position of National Youth Leader of the APC, who stepped down for the current youth leader, had led a delegation to brief the party’s leadership on the build up to the NANS election.
Our source further explained that Dada was at the secretariat, on the directive of the youth leader, to brief the party’s leadership at the NWC meeting on how elements of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in APC plan to hijack the election.
“Dada’s attempt and desperation to force his way with his delegation resulted in the police using teargas on them, which led to a rowdy atmosphere.
“The surprising thing is that Dada is not a stranger at the secretariat because he worked here for some years. However, he was not diplomatic in handling the situation, otherwise it would not have degenerated to the extent of using several canisters of teargas to disperse them.
“It was bad that the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the party was molested by those boys who came with Dada,” the source explained.
Another source, however, attributed the fracas to an extension of the cold war between the party’s chairman and the presidential candidate from the NANS factions loyal to the two leaderships.
“One of the candidates for the election, Umar Farouk, from Bayero University Kano (BUK) is Tinubu’s choice, while Usman Baba Kankia from ABU Zaria is the initial choice of Abullahi Adamu and the presidency. However, Usman Baranbu of the Federal University Dutse is the popular choice of the student leaders and stakeholders. So, what happened at the secretariat was a show of force, a dress rehearsal and litmus test of what to expect during Thursday’s (today) NANS election.
“The fracas that took place at the secretariat was sponsored by the Tinubu group, who felt Baranbu, enjoying popular support, would not be loyal to the Tinubu presidency agenda,”our source explained.
Although the party’s chairman had hurriedly left the secretariat after normalcy had returned, our source claimed that his departure was nothing to with fear about.
“There is no iota of truth in the speculation that our chairman hurriedly left the secretariat because of the fracas. I can confirm to you that he went to Keffi, Nassarawa State, to attend a function. Let me also let you know that the National Secretary spent several hours with the leader of the delegation, Dada, to sort things out,” our source explained.
Meanwhile, palpable fear has gripped the staff of the secretariat over possible attack by the angry youths.