There was pandemonium at the National Secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday when aggrieved members of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter of the party protested the imposition of direct primaries on them by the National Working Committee, NWC.
According to the protesters, FCT APC stakeholders had earlier agreed to conduct the Senate and House of Representatives primary elections through indirect not direct, as being insisted by the NWC.
They stressed that their action was ignited by the approval of direct primaries by the NWC of the party in the APC national Secretariat.
Recall that the NWC directed all states of the federation and the FCT to either choose direct, indirect, or consensus modes of primary election, which the FCT Chapter agreed on indirect primaries but the NWC later changed it.
The protesters who overwhelmed security operatives at the entrance of the APC National Secretariat in Wuse- II , Abuja pulled down the giant billboard carrying the picture of President Muhammadu Buhari and Oshiomhole mounted at the the gate.
Activities at the Secretariat were grounded while the protest lasted, making staff of the party stranded with motorists and pedestrian at the popular Blantyre Street scampering for safety.
They carried placards with various inscriptions calling on Oshiomhole to resign as he was the agent of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP working for the failure of APC, threatening that there will be more show down if indirect primaries are not allowed in the FCT.
Murtala Karish, Leader of the protesters told journalists that they were unhappy with the position of the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole that direct primaries must be adopted in the FCT against the yearnings of party stakeholders.
Karish said, “FCT APC stakeholders and the members had since settled for indirect election to elect their candidates, so we will not accept any new arrangement outside what we have agreed from the beginning”.
It took the intervention of the FCT Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma who mobilized more personnel to the APC Secretariat to quell the protest which was turning violent.
Pandemonium as FCT APC protests direct primaries
