The All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives primary elections in Ondo State took a violent turn on Sunday evening when suspected thugs, allegedly linked to a disqualified aspirant, stormed the party’s secretariat in Akure.
The primaries had been conducted the previous Saturday across 203 wards in the state’s nine federal constituencies. By Sunday evening, only three of the nine constituency results had been officially declared.
The seven-man National Assembly Primary Election Committee, led by Hon. Iboroma Harry Dabibi, had returned to the secretariat at approximately 7 pm to announce the outstanding results when the situation took a dangerous turn.
According to eyewitnesses, the attack bore all the hallmarks of careful planning rather than a spontaneous outburst. Sources revealed that the suspected thugs had arrived at the secretariat before the committee members themselves, quietly positioning themselves around the premises before the exercise resumed.
When the committee was ready to proceed, the thugs made their move, storming the venue, shouting, and issuing direct threats to disrupt the entire process.
Security operatives deployed to the venue were unable to contain the situation and were eventually forced to evacuate the committee members from the premises entirely. State APC Chairman Kolawole Babatunde, along with party executives, electoral officials, delegates, and supporters, reportedly made a hasty and undignified exit through the back door of the secretariat as tension reached dangerous levels.
“At some point, the environment became completely unsafe for many people,” one eyewitness told our correspondent. “They mobilized youths from different wards. They were shouting and threatening to disrupt the entire process.”
Perhaps the most alarming detail to emerge from Sunday’s incident was the account of a mysterious phone call that allegedly triggered the invasion. According to one eyewitness, the thugs moved just as the committee was about to announce the results for one of the federal constituencies, following a phone call instructing them to halt the process immediately.
“At first, many people assumed the directive came from the governor,” the witness said, “but it was later alleged that it originated from another influential figure within the state government.” The identity of this figure has not been officially confirmed, and no authority has stepped forward to clarify or deny the allegation.
Eyewitnesses were equally direct in pointing fingers at a disqualified aspirant as the alleged mastermind behind the mobilization. “It was a disqualified aspirant who allegedly mobilized the thugs to the venue,” a source said. “The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and people started leaving because nobody wanted the situation to degenerate into violence.”
Sunday’s violence did not emerge without warning. In the days leading up to the primaries, a group of aggrieved aspirants had publicly raised the alarm over an alleged plot to deploy thugs to intimidate candidates not favored by the state government. Those warnings went unheeded, and Sunday’s events have lent them a grim credibility.
The incident also fits a broader and deeply troubling pattern of political violence within Ondo’s APC. Earlier party congresses were similarly marred by thug attacks on the secretariat, with senior party leaders physically assaulted, and reports of shootings and machete attacks in other parts of the state.
The recurrence of such violence points to a party structure either unwilling or unable to discipline those who resort to thuggery when democratic outcomes do not favor them.
Despite the gravity of Sunday’s events, the Ondo State APC leadership had issued no official statement as of the time of this report. In a move that raised further eyebrows, the election committee chairman quietly released the final results of all outstanding primaries in the early hours of Monday, with no public explanation of the disruption or the circumstances under which the results were eventually concluded.
No arrests have been made. No aspirant has been publicly named or sanctioned. And no senior party official has called for an investigation.
The results may have been announced, but the questions they leave behind are far louder. When a disqualified aspirant can allegedly mobilize armed youths to silence an official election committee, evacuate a state party chairman, and freeze a democratic exercise mid-process, all without consequence, the integrity of the entire primary is placed under a shadow that a midnight press release cannot dispel.
For the people of Ondo State, and indeed for Nigeria’s democracy, Sunday night in Akure was yet another reminder that until political violence carries a real and enforceable cost, it will remain the weapon of choice for those who refuse to accept the verdict of the ballot.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The All Progressives Congress House of Representatives primary elections in Ondo State took a violent turn on Sunday evening when suspected thugs, allegedly linked to a disqualified aspirant, stormed the party’s secretariat in Akure.
The attack forced security operatives to evacuate the election committee, sent the state party chairman fleeing through the back door, and brought the collation of results to an abrupt halt.
Eyewitnesses alleged the invasion was premeditated, with the thugs arriving at the venue before officials and moving on a phone instruction from an unnamed figure.
