Violence erupted on Wednesday during the All Progressives Congress ward congress in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, leaving several party members injured across multiple wards.
A former Commissioner and Director General of the Grassroots Movement for Tinubu, Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye, alleged that he and his supporters barely escaped with their lives during the bloody unrest, which was reportedly fuelled by a power struggle over ward executive positions.
Speaking with journalists at Oba-Ile, Yusuf-Ogunleye said members had resolved to participate in the nationally scheduled congress despite earlier threats.
“If not for God, we would have been dead by now. When they entered the hall, I heard them asking, ‘Where is Saka? We will kill him today,’” he alleged.
The former commissioner further claimed that the Chairman of Akure North Local Government, Johnson Ogunbolude, allegedly led a group backed by two lorries loaded with National Union of Road Transport Workers members, who attacked party faithful across several wards.
He said distress calls flooded in from across the council area during the congress, prompting him to move between wards to assess the situation and attend to victims.
At Ward 8, Yusuf-Ogunleye alleged that the council chairman seized members’ phones, harassed and dispersed them, and declared the congress cancelled, purportedly on the governor’s directive.
The situation was reportedly no better in Ward 3, where he claimed to have witnessed a former House of Assembly member allegedly supervising thugs who attacked party members with sticks and machetes.
Several victims were confirmed to have been hospitalised following the violence, as the former commissioner called for accountability and the protection of members’ rights to participate in legitimate party activities.
