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Tag: APC supporters

  • Scores injure as PDP, APC supporters clash in Ekiti

    * APC Accuses Senate Minority leader of instigating crisis

     

    Supporters of the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party on Monday clashed during a campaign rally in Omuo Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti East Local Government Area, with no fewer than 20 persons sustaining various degrees of injuries.

    The members of the APC were said to be holding a joint rally for the senatorial candidate in Ekiti South District, Prince Dayo Adeyeye and the House of Representatives candidate in Ekiti South Federal Constituency, Hon Femi Bamisile when the suspected PDP thugs invaded the rally and launched attacks on them.

    Those who allegedly carried out the attacks were those loyal to the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi and senatorial candidate of the PDP in Ekiti South.

    Some APC supporters, Adeniyi Saliu , Kayode Ojo and Adeniyi Ayo , who were victims of the attack sustained deep cut in the heads, back and stomach, had been referred to Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti for intensive medical care.

    Another 15 others were said to have been wounded during the unexpected attack.

    It was gathered by our reporter that those who committed the crime had fled the town and are now being trailed by the police for possible arrest and prosecution.

    Former Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and an APC House of Representative candidate, Bamisile described the attack as unfortunate and a threat to democracy.

    Bamisile said the desperation of some of the PDP members is nothing but an attempt to subvert democratic consolidation.

    Read Also: APC accuses Amosun of sponsoring attack against Buhari, party leaders

    He, therefore, called on the security agencies in the state to apprehend the perpetrators of the latest ugly development in the area without further delay.

    “APC as a party will not fold arms and watch its members be attacked by members of other political parties, hence the need for a strong warning to troublemakers to retrace their steps and allow peace to reign in the land.

    “Nobody has monopoly of violence, therefore PDP members should be aware of that, and stop provoking peace loving APC members in the state”.

    APC senatorial candidate and former Minister of Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, warned miscreants and political thugs planning violence and mayhem in the build-up to Saturday general elections to be careful or risk being sent to prison.

    Adeyeye while reacting to the sudden wave of political violence and attacks on APC members in Omuo Ekiti said the long arms of law will catch up with political louts that were led by one Sunday Awolusi no matter how fast they run.

    Prince Adeyeye said: “Arresting and prosecuting the suspects will serve as a deterrent to others inclined to political violence. I enjoin the security agencies to be on the red alert to curtail the overbearing influence of these political violence perpetrators.

    “Ekiti is a peaceful state and nobody should turn it into theatre of war in the name of politics”.

     

  • Again, APC supporters injured as political thugs attack Abiodun’s campaign train

    The campaign train of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, came under a fresh savage attack yesterday by political thugs suspected to be working for a rival governorship candidate in the state.

    Several people, most of them supporters of Abiodun, were left injured in the attack.

    The suspected thugs who were armed with knives, machetes and guns allegedly attacked Abiodun’s campaign on its way to Ofada town shortly after a rally in Owode town in Obafemi – Owode Local Government Area.

    The Nation gathered that as the campaign train ran into an ambush by the thugs who shot sporadically, and hurled stones at the convoy.

    Although security men attached to the campaign managed to evacuate the APC gubernatorial candidate of APC to safety,  some of his supporters were not lucky as they sustained various degree of injuries varying from gunshot and machete wounds.

    Some others were beaten and vehicles destroyed.

    This is the second attack on Abiodun’s campaign train in the last one week beginning of February.

    The first one occurred at Elega in  Abeokuta North Local Government during his ward to ward campaign tour of the area.

    However, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told The Nation that no report of the Friday incident had been brought to the notice of the Police at press time.

    Abimbola, a Deputy Superintendent of Police(DSP), said every governorship candidate in the state has been given adequate security personnel to secure lives and properties during campaign tour, stressing that if there was any of such attacks, it had not yet been reported in any police division within the state.

  • APC crisis: Akume urges APC supporters to be calm

    Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue state Senator George Akume has charged supporters not to panic but remain focused.

    He spoke yesterday at the funeral ceremony of his domestic staff, the late Imo Shom also known as Orshoja.

    The Zone B Senator said he was aware of all the political shakings in the state but described them as signs of better things to come.

    He urged those who believe in the APC never to swerve positions, noting he was not in a hurry to curry public sympathies with words.

    While describing the deceased as a focused and diligent person appreciated by all who knew him, Senator Akume said men like the late Imo Shom were very rare to come by.

    He pledged to take up the sponsorship of the deceased’s children in their various institutions.

    The former Senate Minority Leader insisted despite so many betrayals he has faced in life, he was more poised to help as many as God would bring his way with his little resources.

    Born on 15th August 1948, the late Imo Shom joined the Nigerian Army in 1969 and fought the Nigerian civil war.

    He retired from service on December 31, 2002 as Assistant Brigade Chief Clerk and has been into active politics until his death June 23, at 69.

     

     

  • Ondo APC supporters accuses chair of causing crisis

    •’Allegation untrue’

    Supporters of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo East Local Government have petitioned Police Commissioner Gbenga Adeyanju and other security agents to intervene in the party’s crisis.

    In the petition signed by two executives of the party in the local government, Roseline Okafor and Jimoh Adebayo and two council executives, Alhaji Rabiu Awotunde and Olafisoye Festus, the supporters accused the APC Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, of causing the crisis.

    The Nation learnt that there was a clash at the council’s secretariat at Bolorunduro and two supporters were injured and hospitalised.

    The supporters urged security officials to call Adetimehin and his cohorts to order, to prevent anarchy.

    However, Adetimehin, speaking through APC’s Director of Media and Publicity, Steve Otaloro, described the allegation as frivolous and untrue, stressing that he was not involved in any dispute.

    According to him, as the chairman, he was aware of the rift among members in the local government, which was being investigated for settlement.

     

  • APC supporters are provoking us, Oke group tells Buhari

    The Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation yesterday cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari on what he described as an unwarranted attacks on its members and the wilful destruction of the campaign banners and billboards of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Governorship Candidate in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke by members of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    President Buhari was in Ondo State for the grand finale of the APC governorship candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu held in Akure yesterday.

    The Oke Campaign Organisation in a statement by its Chairman, Media and Publicity, Mr Bisi Kolawole, described as regrettable a development where members of the APC could embark on a mass destruction of the campaign banner and billboards of Chief Olusola Oke with the active supervision and protection of two Toyota Hilux vans fully loaded which Mobile Policemen who took off from the Alagbaka home of a former House of Representatives member to perpetrate the dastardly act.

    While noting that the act, aside from being a despicable one, was done to make the President believe that the APC is popular in Ondo State, the Organization, however, said that this was not the true position of things in the state.

    “We want to express our displeasure with this desperate act which is borne out of their fear of imminent loss at next Saturday’s governorship election. The reception and the decorations you saw on ground were mere subterfuge and smokescreen, to give you the erroneous impression that they are a popular party in Ondo State.

    “Thus early in the morning on Saturday (yesterday), between 1:00am and 4:00am; they went to town, specifically in Akure, destroying, carting away the billboards of our candidate, Chief Olusola Oke and replacing these destroyed campaign materials with those of the APC which were hurriedly done to give you the impression that they are popular here.

    “The truth is that APC members in the state have been merely grandstanding of their so-called popularity in the media while Oke has been canvassing for votes and soliciting the people’s support for the election.

    “We have been roundly provoked, harassed and our supporters attacked in the last two weeks due to the soaring popularity of Chief Olusola Oke. But as democrats and lovers of peace, we are and, we will continue to refrain from being provoked and goaded into retaliating.

    “In line with this resolve, we have continue to appeal to the people of the State to remain calm in the face of persistent persecutions by members of the APC in their attempt to browbeat them into submission,” Olabisi said.

    While commending President Buhari for his fatherly role in being fair to all and sundry irrespective of their political leanings, the Organization enjoined him to continue to prevail on members of his Party to tow the path of peace and refrain from stoking the ember of violence as the election period draws near.

    His words: “Our dear President, we cannot but appreciate you for your statesmanship and your ever strident admonitions that no blood of an innocent Nigerian should be shed for any political ambition. This stance is what we want you to ingrain in your members here who have been grandstanding, boasting and threatening to use federal might to rig and win at all cost.

    “Ondo State belongs to us all and we want to live in peace; that is why we have refused to be stampeded into being drawn into the traps they have been laying to provoke us into action.

    “Kindly use your good offices to do this, so that we can have a peaceful and hitch free election in Ondo State next Saturday,” he pleaded.

  • APC supporters threaten to dump party over ‘unfair appointments’

    APC supporters threaten to dump party over ‘unfair appointments’

    All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters in the four local governments under Ikwerre ethnic nationality in Rivers State have threatened to dump the party because of what they called unfair political appointments.

    The aggrieved supporters said their decision followed the absence of measures to address the plight of their leaders, Chidi Lloyd, Ezemonye Ezekiel-Amadi and Igo Aguma, who had not been given appointments.

    Speaking on behalf of the supporters yesterday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, an APC chieftain, Mr. Ifeayin Evans Osi said they had been neglected by leaders at the centre, despite the contributions and sacrifices of members in the area to the party at the state level.

    Osi said some APC members in the state, who did not contribute half of what Lloyd and other party faithful did, had been compensated with “juicy and lucrative appointments and contracts” by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The spokesman said previous federal appointments to some APC members in the state were to other Rivers senatorial districts.

    He said the district had the highest voting strength, adding that the area voted massively for the party’s governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, and President Muhammed Buhari during the last general election.

    Osi said: “I want to know the rationale and criteria for appointments into any Federal corporations in Nigeria in which Chidi Lloyd, Igo Aguma and Ezemonye Ezekiel-Amadi did not merit or qualified to be. We, as APC supporters in the Rivers East, are not happy.

    “Our supporters are watching Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi with keen interest. We love him and we will continue to support him. We want him to act fast over our plight. If not, we will move en mass to support any other party in the forthcoming rerun, even in 2019 general elections.

    “We want the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amechi, to know that those who sacrificed their blood and lives on the floor of the hallowed chambers of the Rivers State House of Assembly during the State Assembly saga, have been abandoned to their faith in the party.”

  • APC supporters protest in Akwa Ibom

    Supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State yesterday shut down Uyo, the state capital,  protesting what they called widespread irregularities in Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    The protest was led by APC Governorship candidate, Umana Okon Umana, and other chieftains.

    Youths across the three senatorial districts and market women also joined the protest.

    The peaceful protest  began at the party’s headquarters on IBB Way, and marched through major roads, down to the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Udo Udoma Avenue.

    The protesters were received by the administrative secretary of the commission where they insisted that the Resident Electoral Commission (REC), Austin Okojie, should address them.

    Umana, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, said the elections were marred by violence and that there were no results sheets in all the polling units.

    According to Umana, collation of results which could have been done at the ward levels and local government areas were all done in the houses of some serving commissioners, senators and minister.

    He said: “From all over Akwa Ibom State, people could not find the result sheets. At the end of Sunday, we compiled reports from our situation room and we found out that the situation was not different anywhere.

    “We took a position to write to INEC Chairman to inform him about the situation. Outside that, even when voting was taking place in a few areas, for example in Ibiono, Ibesikpo, Nsit Atai, Etinan, serving commissioners led thugs to polling units to snatch ballot boxes and killed some of our members.

    Umana, who called for fresh elections, said: “The people of Akwa Ibom state feel that their rights have been trampled upon, they have been oppressed in a manner that has never happened before. They are crying out to God that those who have participated in this conspiracy are putting up a course on their head. Whatever money they have collected it will never be well with them.

    “We have not had elections in Akwa Ibom State. We are law abiding. We have done the right thing. We wrote to the chairman of INEC stating our facts that we couldn’t have had elections in Akwa Ibom because we had no result sheets. No voting took place in Akwa Ibom and I know results must have been recorded by now and over 100 per cent given to PDP.

  • Kaduna Gov, on tape, threatens to attack APC supporters, El-Rufai

    Kaduna Gov, on tape, threatens to attack APC supporters, El-Rufai

    Governor Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State has been caught on tape threatening violence against the All Progressives Congress (APC) should his team be attacked while campaigning.

    Speaking in Hausa language to his supporters, Gov Yero vowed swift “revenge” if ever attacked by any one “born of woman”.

    “If you are born of a woman, please pelt us with stones, when we go out for campaigns. We dare you to destroy or burn our vehicles. Burn our House,” the governor said.

    “I swear by Allah, anyone who does any of these things, we will revenge.”

    The governor and his supporters see Mallam Nasir El-Rufai of the APC as the main stumbling block to a return to office and said he could stop El-Rufai from entering the state.

    “If I say you should not come to Kaduna, I swear you cannot come. If I say you should not leave your house, I swear you cannot leave,” Yero said.

    “If I say they should demolish your House, I swear by Allah, they would demolish it immediately. If you think we cannot do it, try us and see, continue with what you are doing, by God’s grace we will show you.”

    But following the outrage sparked by the threats which were first published by the online outfit -Premium Times – the governor went on radio yesterday to deny issuing any such threats.

    He said he only urged his supporters to rise up and defend themselves whenever the opposition attack or attempt to destroy their property.

    The governor in the phone-in programme in Kaduna said he could not have uttered the statement attributed to him.

    He appealed for calm before, during and after the forthcoming elections, adding that, as an advocate of peace right from his early years, his prayer is that people should conduct themselves peacefully and be allowed to vote for persons of their choice without intimidation or force.

    He said: “those who know me know that I am an advocate of peace and since I became governor of the state, I have been doing all I could to ensure that we have peace in the state.

    “In fact, my love for peaceful coexistence in spite of provocations could be why some were saying that I am too patient to a fault. I have never made any provocative statement, despite the fact that I’ve been insulted on Facebook and in other places. Those working with me, I admonish them every day on the need for peace. “

  • Police tear-gas APC supporters at Akure ‘Walk for Change’ rally

    Police tear-gas APC supporters at Akure ‘Walk for Change’ rally

    The police in Akure, Ondo State capital, yesterday disrupted a peaceful rally organised by members of the  All Progressives Congress (APC) to welcome the party’s vice-presidential candidate, Pastor Yemi Osibanjo.

    Not a few party members who thronged the campaign office of  General Muhammadu Buhari at Leo Junction along Oyemekun Road in Akure were tear-gassed.

     The rally, tagged ‘Work for Change’, was organised by an APC chieftain, Hon Boloa Ilori,  and witnessed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State.

    A cheerful crowd of APC supporters and members of the Hausa community had assembled at the venue of the rally as early as 7. a.m to welcome Prof Osinbajo when men of the Ondo State Police Command stormed the venue and released tear gas to disperse the crowd.

    Journalists who were on ground to cover the rally were not spared by the police.

    The Nation gathered that the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Isaac Eke, had warned the APC members to confine their rally to the premises of the campaign office.

    The APC members were said to have insisted on carrying out their rally by walking round the town, arguing that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had lifted ban on campaign rallies

    Speaking with reporters, the Chairman of Ondo APC, Isaac Kekemeke, said the incident was an unfolding drama because he had been in constant touch with the state Commissioner of Police on the need to allow the party to hold the rally.

    He said: “I have been discussing with the Commissioner of Police constantly. I still spoke with him a few minutes ago and we are still talking. He told me that he had been directed from Abuja not to allow the rally to hold because our campaign would disturb the peace of the state.

    “Our party members have conducted themselves peacefully with members of the public and we are only waiting for our visitors, Osibanjo, Aregbesola and others to start the programme before we were tear-gassed.

    “I have urged my members not to attack the police; we are going to hold the rally. If the police attack you, don’t attack them, if they tear-gas you, use water to clean your face”.

    Gov. Aregbesola, who later arrived with Osinbajo and Iyaloja of Osun State, Alhaja Akindemade, warned Nigerians against casting their votes for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, noting that giving Jonathan a second chance will completely ruin Nigerian economy.

    Aregbesola lamented the continuous stealing of 400,000 crude oil barrels per day since July 2013.

    He explained that the stolen crude oil worth $40million at a time when oil was being sold at $150 per crude oil.

    According to him: “We should vote for development and kick out corruption, poverty and unemployment, by voting Buhari in. If a government could allow about 400, 000 crude oil to be missing per day, we should know we are in for serious trouble.

    “Since July 2013, every day, we have been losing 400,000 crude oil barrels to oil theft. Do you know the worth of such,  if the crude oil is being sold at the rate of $150 per barrel? That is $40million per day that we are losing to oil thieves and if you look at this for a year, that is over $14billion. Should we allow this kind of government to continue to rule over us?

    “We must vote them out. I am urging people who have not collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to go back to their various local government areas, INEC offices and get their  PVCs. They still have the chance to get the cards till January 31, this month”.

    The APC vice-presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, assured members of the public that the party would adopt the school feeding policy of Osun State government for every public school across the country, if voted for.

    He said no child in the primary school level across the country would come to school with empty stomach again.

    Business activities in the state were paralysed as APC supporters and residents trooped out to receive Osinbajo and Aregbesola.

    Party members and supporters, including members of the Asiwaju Grassroots Foundation (AGF) led by its coordinator Ayodele Wisdom, Hausa Community, Okada riders, market women later participated in the rally, walking from Leo Junction to the Alagbaka area of Akure.

    The convener of the rally, Hon  Ilori, said the ‘Walk for Change’ was informed by the need for people to actively participate in the process to ensure meaningful change in the country.

    He lamented that people have always talked about election in the four corners of their house without coming out to participate in the system.

    At the event were Senator Ajayi Boroffice, Ifedayo Abegunde, Osun State Speaker, Najeem Salam, Chief Tayo Alasoadura, Tunji Abayomi and Prince Solagbade Amodeni, among others.