Sticks, bottles, stones and charms were freely used on Wednesday by thugs loyal to factional leaders of the Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC).
Thugs loyal to factional state chairman, Saka Yusuf Ogunleye, stormed the Oyemekun Road, Akure secretariat to dislodge thugs loyal to Isaacs Kekemeke.
Traffic along the popular Oyemekun Road was disrupted for more than 30 minutes as the thugs engaged in a supremacy battle.
It took the intervention of policemen to dislodge the thugs.
It is believed that Ogunleye is loyal to governorship aspirants, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Senator Robert Boroffice.
Kekemeke is believed to be supporting the aspiration of Olusegun Abraham to fly the party’s flag in the November 26 election.
It would be recalled that Kekemeke was accused by members in the state of compromising his position and conniving with Senator Bola Tinubu to impose Abraham on them.
This led to the removal of Kekemeke and Ogunleye took over as chairman.
Meanwhile, the party has summoned all actors involved in the crisis to Abuja for the resolution of the impasse.
Deputy National Secretary of the party, Mr Oji Ngofa, made this known on Wednesday while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the party’s weekly National Working Committee (NWC) meeting at its secretariat in Abuja.
Ngofa said that the decision to invite key players of the party in the state, including the chairman, secretary and aspirants, was to build confidence in the process.
Ngofa said: “We have taken a decision to invite all the aspirants, the state chairman and the state secretary to a meeting here on Saturday at 12 noon.
”At that meeting, we will ensure that everybody is on the same page; what our party Constitution says on primaries, we’ll get the confidence of everybody.
”There’s no need for crisis in Ondo State. As a party, we are committed to transparent, credible primaries; we have a reputation for that and we will continue to do that.”
He urged the party supporters in the state to remain steadfast and retain confidence in it.
”From what we have seen and read in the newspapers, they seem to think that the state is responsible for primaries, but it is not.
”We at the national level are responsible for primaries and we will go according to the constitution of our party. As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any chairman that is sacked and all that.
”What we are aware of is just a misunderstanding of the processes and that is why we are inviting them here on Saturday to ensure that everybody is on the same page.
”We understand that when you’re going for primaries, people want to know who the real delegates are; we’ll make all that clear and that will be according to our constitution.
”We have read that the state chairman has been accused of altering the delegates list; nobody has such power.
”We have our delegates list and we’ll make that very clear and available to the aspirants. We are not aware of any such endorsements,” he said.
