Several leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were injured on Wednesday following violent clashes that disrupted the party’s ward congress in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The crisis, which erupted across multiple wards in the council area, was reportedly linked to a struggle over the control of ward executives.
A former Commissioner and Director General of the Grassroots Movement For Tinubu (GMT), Hon. Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye, alleged that he and his supporters narrowly escaped death during the unrest.
Speaking with journalists at Oba-Ile, Yusuf-Ogunleye said the party’s national secretariat had fixed the ward congress nationwide and that members in Akure North had resolved to participate despite what he described as earlier threats and intimidation.
He said: “Today, our national secretariat fixed the ward congress nationwide for the APC. Despite the ugly incident that happened yesterday when we were chased away from the state secretariat of the party, we decided to participate.
“If not for God, we would have been dead by now. When they entered the hall at the party secretariat, I heard them asking, ‘Where is Saka? We will kill him today.'”
The former commissioner further alleged that he began receiving distress calls from party members and supporters across the local government during the ward congress.
According to him, the Chairman of Akure North Local Government, Johnson Ogunbolude, allegedly led a group accompanied by two lorries loaded with members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), who attacked party members in different wards.
Yusuf-Ogunleye said that upon receiving information that a member had been seriously injured in Ward 1 in Itaogbolu, he immediately proceeded to the area.
He later moved to Ward 8 after reports of further disturbances.
“At Ward 8, I was told that the council chairman collected their phones, harassed them, dispersed them and declared that there would be no congress. They also said the governor had directed that there should be no congress and that everyone should go home,” he alleged.
He added that he subsequently received information about another critically injured member in Ward 12, whom he met receiving treatment at a hospital.
While preparing to leave, he said he was alerted to fresh violence in Ward 3.
“I was told that in Ward 3, they were beaten with sticks and machetes. I drove straight there. I saw a former House of Assembly member who allegedly brought thugs in his vehicle. They were beating our people,” he said.
Yusuf-Ogunleye said several party members sustained injuries during the clashes and have been taken to hospitals for medical treatment.