Members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party in Kwara State on Wednesday engaged in a free for all fight during a stakeholders’ meeting.
The meeting which was reportedly held to find a solution to the lingering crisis in the Kwara chapter of the party which has already left APC factionalized in Kwara however turned bloody.
According to videos seen by our correspondent, members of the party started throwing chairs at one another, disrupted the entire meeting and the venue while personal properties including cars also got damaged.
Naija News gathered the meeting which held at the Banquet Hall, opposite Government House in Ilorin, the state capital, was conveyed ahead of the membership validation exercise in the state but members of the two factions of the party in Kwara State clashed, resulting in the violence.
It will be recalled that the crisis plaguing the APC in Kwara State recently took another dimension when about two weeks ago, the national caretaker committee of the party led by Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, ordered the removal of Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa (BOB) as the state chairman and replaced him with Abdullahi Samari with BOB insisting he remains the rightful chairman.
According to eyewitnesses, Wednesday’s violence started after supporters of the state Governor AbdulRazaq Abdulrahman allegedly stopped Mr Bolarinwa and his supporters from entering the Banquet Hall for the meeting.
However, Bolarinwa was said to have forced his way in but was reportedly accosted by a female supporter of the governor before other members of both factions joined in, turning it into a free for all fight.
The spokesperson of the APC in the state, Tajudeen Aro while commenting on the incident, claimed: “it was BOB (Mr Bolarinwa) who came into the hall with his thugs to disrupt the meeting.”
See the video:
Violence erupt at Kwara state APC stakeholder meeting which held at the Barnet Hall, Government house in Ilorin, the state capital today pic.twitter.com/NCH04l6S1J
— Naija (@Naija_PR) February 3, 2021
Meanwhile, residents of Igbaja community in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State have accused Fulani herdsmen of encroaching on their farmlands.
According to a viral video, a member of the vigilante group said cattle reared by Fulani herdsmen in the community ate up crops ready to be harvested.
He added that this constant loss of crops had jacked up the price of food items and worsened food insecurity in the region.
He called on the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, President Muhammadu Buhari and well-meaning Nigerians to rise and save the people from Fulani herdsmen.