On Friday, not fewer than three members of All Progressives Congress were allegedly killed in Benue State, and countless others sustained injuries during the party’s Benue South Senatorial caucus meeting which was organized in Otukpo, headquarters of the senatorial district.
Our reporters learnt that a clash that emerged during the meeting between some men that were assumed to be loyal to Mr. Abbah Yaro, the incumbent chairman of the party in the state, and a member of the House of Representatives from the senatorial district.
The federal lawmaker was said to have pronounced his motive to contest the Benue South senatorial ticket on the occasion.
It was further learnt that the battle resulted in the loss of three persons, including a pastor, (names withheld), while numerous other party faithful had injuries.
While having a conversation with a police correspondent over the phone in Makurdi, Mr. Abbah Yaro said that the clash did not start as a result of the meeting that was held. He further revealed that the zonal meeting went on well and ended successfully.
He explained that in spite the preparations by some members of the party from Benue South Senatorial district to cause conflict during the meeting, that everything went well. He said,
“Some people in my senatorial zone do not want me back as the state chairman of the party even when the entire zonal leadership of the party in the state has endorsed me for a second term.
Some people, who just defected from the PDP to the APC, are fighting me and they are the cause of Friday’s mayhem.
However, what I gathered is that the fight that led to the death of the three people, started in one of the streets of Otukpo, a day before the zonal meeting was held and l was not there.”
Apeh Peter, who is the Director of Publicity of the party in the state, has alleged that the fight that resulted to the loss of the people might have been propagated by a federal lawmaker who said he wanted to contest the Benue South Senatorial district. He said,
“I heard about the killings. The incident did not happen at the venue of the meeting or at the zonal party secretariat. The crisis started from Thursday. I heard that boys were moving from street to street, killing people.”
All attempts to have a conversation with the federal lawmaker were abortive, as his telephone number which was made available to our reporter was switched off.
Also, command spokesman, ASP Moses Yamu, could not be reached for confirmation as of the time of filing this report. He did not return calls made to his phone neither did he respond to a text message sent to him.
