Guber primaries: Benue AC officials desert office
The three-week-old crisis generated by the Action Congress (AC) governorship primaries in Benue, has led to the ``temporary'' closure of its secretariat in Makurdi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, the secretariat located in Wadata area of Makurdi, has been under lock and key, since Dec. 16, when the result of the governorship primaries was announced.
The closure of the office followed the threat of attack on the party's officials by some aggrieved members, who said they were dissatisfied with the way and manner the primaries were conducted.
Mr Shima Ayati, was announced as the winner of the governorship primaries, an action that sparked-off spontaneous protest among the supporters of one of the aspirants, Mr Manasseh Joshua.
The supporters who stormed the secretariat in company of the aspirant, called for the cancellation of the primaries on the ground that the date and venue of the exercise were not made known to them.
This, they claimed, made the aspirant not to participate in the congress, as he was said to have travelled out of the state on the day of the primaries.
The party's state Chairman, Mr Tivlumun Ahure and Secretary, Abba Yaro, reportedly fled their offices for fear of attack by the aggrieved members.
NAN gathered that they currently administered the party from their hotel rooms.
NAN further reports that while serious political activities were going on in the offices of other political parties such as ANPP and PDP, the AC office had since been deserted.
Efforts to speak with the party's chairman proved abortive, as he was said to have stopped going to his office since the crisis started on Dec. 16.