Protesters from Ondo State stormed the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in protest over last weekend’s primary election of the party, which returned the state governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa as its candidate.
The youths who came in four luxury buses, were, however, dispersed by security operatives at the entrance of the national headquarters.
However, the protesters again regrouped a few blocks from the secretariat by the popular Barcelona Hotel, shouting ‘Aluta Continua.’
While displaying placards and banners that read ‘Ondo APC rejects Kangaroo primary election’, ‘No primary held in Ondo’, and ‘We want a fresh election,’ they threatened to march into the party secretariat again.
The demonstration came on a day when the National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje and members of the National Working Committee met aggrieved aspirants in the state to bury the hatchet and support Aiyedatiwa ahead of the governorship election in November.
Leader of the protesters and a party youth leader in Akure South, Kolawole Johnson, described the primary as a sham and declared that only a rerun election can pacify their people back home in Ondo.
He said; “How can you say you want to ratify the outcome of a primary and you declared a candidate? It shows there is foul play. Ondo is APC and APC is Ondo State. We won’t fold our hands and allow opposition parties to snatch Ondo from us.
“That is why we are calling on the party to cancel the primary. There should be a rerun and we want a new person to head the committee that will supervise us. What they did is not a primary election. It is selling the APC ticket. We want a rerun because we are not impressed with the poll.
“We, therefore, invite President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to look into this. We don’t want opposition to take over Ondo State.”
