Heavy Security As APC Inaugurates State Chairmen Against Choices Of Ganduje, Aregbesola, Keyamo, Others

There is tension at the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress as the inauguration of state Chairmen begins amid tight security.

The office, which is located at Blantyre Street, Wuse 2, Abuja, was surrounded by heavily armed police men who prevented people including workers from using the street.

THE WHISTLER gathered that members of staff at the secretariat were told not to come to work on Thursday through a memo on Wednesday night.

But some workers who spoke with our correspondent said they did not get the memo and expressed reservation on why they could be denied access to the office with their identification cards issued to them.

“It’s unfortunate that despite our ID cards, they can still deny us access to office to work,” a female staff lamented.

She said, the office which has been in comatose suddenly sprung to life “because they want to do their ‘mago mago’, a Nigerian parlance for cheating.

Another staff said, “That’s Nigeria for you. Are we the trouble makers? If they want us to stay home and receive salaries, let them say it.”

The Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, has been under serious fire for sundry reasons including his inability to resolve crises that arose from the conduct of state congresses in 2021.

It was gathered that the police deployment was in anticipation of protests by state chapters who are miffed that despite inability to resolve crises at state levels, the Buni-led Committee would be going ahead to inaugurate factional executives.

With the inauguration, some key stakeholders of the party have lost out. This includes Kano State Governor, Mr Abdullahi Ganduje, Ministers of Interior and that of State for Employment and Productivity, Messrs Rauf Aregbesola and Festus Keyamo respectively.

Others who have lost out are Koko Dan in Cross River State, Magnus Abe in Rivers State and others across Enugu, Bauchi, Gombe, Ogun and Ekiti states.

When our correspondent spoke with one of the security operatives, he said it was normal to deploy to forestall “any fifth columnist and area boys from causing trouble.

“Some people will come here and pretend to be party chairman, you know. So we are here to create security and ensure they don’t have their way.

“And people have been saying a lot of things; they have been trying to cause trouble since, so they brought us here to stop them. It can’t happen,” he said.

Speaking with the Chairman-elect of the APC in Lagos State, Mr Cornelius Ojelabi, who confirmed he was in Abuja for the inauguration, he confirmed that “all is going well.”

On the inauguration, he told THE WHISTLER that the “Party will communicate that.”

His Ogun counterpart, Mr Adebiyii Derin also said he was in Abuja for the inauguration saying his group “are the authentic one. That’s why we are here.”

According to the state publicity Secretary-elect of the party in Cross River State, Mr Raja Erasmus, “The inauguration will be piecemeal because the hall won’t contain the 36 state Chairmen and FCT Chairman but it’s going well.”

He further said that the chairmen will be inaugurated first.