BEVERLY HILLS, May 29, (THEWILL) – There was an outbreak of violence during the ward primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos stateon Monday, resulting in the deaths of at least one person in the Shogunle area of the state and scores were injured in the exercises in some wards.
The exercise was meant for the councillorship candidates of the ruling party in the July 22 local council poll billed for the 377 wards of the state.
While candidates emerged in many areas, disagreements led to postponement in some others.
Some of the councils rocked by violence include: Ejigbo Local Government Area, Ikeja, Mushin, Oshodi-Isolo, some parts of Agege and Amuwo-odofin.
Crisis marred the primaries at Shogunle area of Lagos following the killing of one of the leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW popularly known as Hamburger, by a rival union and supporters of one of the aspirants in Oshodi/Isolo local government.
Fight broke out between the rival groups at Saka/Oposun area of the Shogunle, during a brawl between one of the groups led by Harmburger whose real name is Rasaq Bello and Golden group led by one Samson Agbetola, over which group was more powerful.
A heated argument ensued between both parties and before we knew it, bottles and other dangerous weapons were flying in the air. Harmburger was shot in the process by a member of Samson Agbetola group. He was rushed to Geo Hospital on Zuberu street, where he later died.
Pandemonium broke out when news of harmburger’s death filtered in, as his loyalists took to the streets in search of members of the rival group. Several persons were reportedly injured in the process with vehicles’ windscreens shattered. Traders, commuters and residents scuttled to safety as supporters of the deceased lynched anyone in sight. It took the intervention of security operatives for normalcy to be restored.
Also, Amuwo-odofin recorded violence as opposing groups disrupted normal process of the primaries while Ejigbo Local Government also witnessed chaos as miscreants prevented electoral officers from conducting the exercise which led to cancelation.
THEWILL recalls that the local government primary election of the APC at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, was also disrupted by violence on Saturday while the party had on Sunday announced that the councillorship primary in the 377 wards of its 57 local government areas would hold on Monday.
In some areas visited by NAN correspondents, the elections went on smoothly, though delegates had to wait for long awaiting arrival of electoral officers.
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