Armed policemen have sealed off the secretariat of the All Progressive Congress in Makurdi, APC, the capital city of Benue State, preventing Agada-led executives from accessing the facility.
The party secretariat belongs to the Austin Agada-led APC Working Committee located along JS Tarka Way opposite the Railway Market in Makurdi.
This is the second time in two months the state executive committee of the party has been denied access to its secretariat named Ahmed Tinubu House, following a letter written by Paul Biam, the Chief of Staff to Governor Hyacinth Alia, directing the police to enforce the court order sacking Agada from office as chairman of the party.
APC loyal to Governor Alia subsequently announced the state welfare secretary of the party, Benjamin Omakolo, as the acting state chairman with a directive to recognise him as the authentic chairman of the party in Benue state.
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While the National Working Committee of the party had issued a directive to Governor Alia and Agada to reconcile all members within fourteen days and withdraw all litigations in court, that directive is yet to be complied with.
The Publicity Secretary of the Agada faction, Daniel Ihomun, said the sealing off of their secretariat may not be unconnected with the inauguration of members of the zoning committee for the forthcoming local government election.
The renewed political tension in Makurdi is a result of the invitation by the Agada state executive committee to convene a meeting to prepare for the July local government election scheduled by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission.
The State APC Publicity Secretary, Dan Ihomun, says police have prevented them from accessing the party’s secretariat.
“The police today prevented us from holding an official meeting of the party at our state secretariat but we are determined to hold the meeting no matter what happened,” he said.
The Agada-led faction had constituted a 21-men zoning committee drawn from the three senatorial districts of the state and was expected to be inaugurated on Friday.
But in a swift response, the Omakolo-led team had in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Terseer Agber, called on all party members and the general public to disregard the zoning committee constituted by the Agada-led committee.
The intra-party dispute between loyalists of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation which Austin Agada leads at the state executive committee and those led by Omakolo who is loyal to Governor Alia has left the party divided since the governor assumed power on May 29th 2023.
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