Police beef up security as fracas over NANS election rocks APC Hqts

The secretariat had degenerated into a battlefround with police releasing several canisters of teargas freely 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 forthcoming election today.

Eyewitness at the secretariat told the Daily Sun that the conflict broke out when the Chairman’s security details, acting on his order, tried to stop the NANS members at the entrance from gaining access into the ongoing National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.

Narrating the incident to our correspondent, a security source explained that Segun Dada, an aspirant for position of APC National Youth Leader, 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 meet the leadership during the NWC meeting and brief them on how the elements of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in APC plan to hijack the election, tried to resist the directive not to gain entrance.

“Dada’s attempt and desperation to force his way with his delegation resulted in the police using teargas on him and others, which infuriated them, leading to the situation becoming rowdy.

“The surprising thing is that Dada is not a stranger at the secretariat because he worked for some years here. But, he was not however diplomatic in handling the situation otherwise it would not have degenerated to the extent of using several canisters of teargas to disperse them.

“Yes, Dada was on genuine mission to brief the leadership on how PDP elements in APC have hijacked the election, as directed by the youth leader.

“But what we cannot understand was why he came with those hefty boys that fought the security agents. It was bad that the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the party was molested by those boys that came with Dada,” the source explained.

Another source however attributed the fracas to 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 BUK Kano 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 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 NANS election.

Although the party’s Chairman had hurriedly left the secretariat after normalcy had returned, our source claimed that his departure has nothing to with fear of the situation deteriorating into full-blown security breakdown.

“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 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 apprehension has enveloped the staff of the secretariat over the possibility of the angry youths that stormed out of the secretariat staging a protest on Thursday.

“Depending on the outcome of the meeting with the leadership of the party, we are afraid that there will be serious protest at the secretariat on Thursday,” a staff noted.