It would be recalled that the primaries which was initially scheduled for September 29th by the party National Working Congress (NWC) was rescheduled to Sunday and later Tuesday by the NWC. The primaries however did not take place as planned on Tuesday.
The committee later went into a closed-door session with the governorship aspirants and state executives of the party. But while the meeting was ongoing within the hall, some suspected rival thugs who allegedly came with two of the governorship aspirants engaged in a clash outside.
Policemen whisked away one of the troublemakers few minutes later restoring peace to the venue temporarily. However, the venue turned to a theatre of war at about 11:30pm when another set of suspected thugs stormed the venue and shot into the crowd outside.
Several gunshots which lasted for more than 15 minutes forced the meeting to end abruptly while some journalists including a Lagos-based TV reporter sustained injuries in their bid to escape from the scene. The eight-man electoral committee members hurriedly called off the meeting, when the venue was turning into a war zone.
Meanwhile, schools in the state were shut down Tuesday morning to allow for the conduct of the primaries. The order was reported to have come from the state government. This may not be unconnected to the shootings of Monday night.
This decision however angered some of the parents. One of the parents who does not want his name on print said, “for me this is undemocratic, if all the 91 political parties in the state fix their primaries on weekdays when our wards are supposed to go to school, indirectly that means they won’t go to school throughout a whole term.”
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