A protest rocked Demark, headquarters of Quan’pan council area of Plateau State, following failed primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to pick candidates for forthcoming council elections.
The late arrival of party officials and electoral materials triggered rumours that some kind of manipulation was going on in the home of Late Senator Ignatius Longjan, who is from the area.
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Protesters marched toward his house carrying placards but were met with stiff resistance by other APC supporters around Longjan’s house.
This led to clashes among the supporters before the situation was brought under control, and the protesters then proceeded with their protest.
Addressing the protesters later on, one of the APC chairmanship aspirants, Magdalene Nanyil, said those who were given the mandate to conduct the party primaries could not reach Quan’pan for the exercise, purporting that names of preferred candidates have been allegedly submitted to the party executives.
“We were told to converge here at the party secretariat in Demark for the party primaries, but the people didn’t come. We all waited here till night fall, but none of them came to conduct the party primaries.
“This afternoon, we were informed that names of preferred candidates from Quan’pan LGA have been submitted to the party secretariat in Jos, but we won’t accept that. So, we are calling on the leader of the party, Governor Simon Lalong, to quickly intervene so that the decision can be reversed for the interest of all party.
She described the decision as an injustice of the highest order and that such won’t be tolerated, and if it goes on like that aggrieved persons would be compelled to seek legal redress.
The protesters thereafter proceeded, while singing solidarity songs and chanting different slogans.
Some of the protesters who spoke have threatened to leave APC and join other political parties if the matter is not amicably resolved.
Plateau State APC Publicity Secretary, Chindo Dafat, confirmed the incident, saying that he was still in Quan’pan and that when he returns to Jos he would meet with the party chairman and other stakeholders to find an amicable resolution.
