It was an embarrassing situation for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) on Friday when its members with opposing loyalty inclinations in Ogun State pounced on one another in a free-for-all.
Although no one died, many of those involved in the scuffle, which occurred as part of the battle for supremacy between former Governor Olusegun Osoba and incumbent Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, sustained various degrees of injury.
The two prominent members of the party have been feuding since the controversy over the choice candidates for local governments began last year, polarising the Ogun State House of Assembly whose members have split their allegiance between Osoba and the governor.
This time, the fight resulted at War 15, Ibara, Abeokuta venue of the revalidation exercise for party members. Crisis began when members of the Amosun faction insisted on registering first, thus breaching the order with which the membership register should follow. The exercise started on Thursday was supposed to be completed in six days.
It was learnt that most of the members of the Amosun faction were those who had defected to the party. Ordinarily, according to a party member who spoke with Huhuonline.com, they should have waited for the registration of older members who are already on the list.
Efforts to make them understand the situation proved abortive, as the affected members became violent and started beating members of the Osoba faction, who in-turn retaliated.
“We told them that their names cannot be the ones to be considered first because they came in when others had fought the battle to keep the party strong in the state,” a member of the Osoba group said,
“But their stand was based on the fact that they are loyal to the governor and therefore they must be given special consideration, which was not possible. They had gone ahead to print fake membership cards so as to achieve their goal. But we soon discovered they were not registered fully and so were supposed to wait to be considered last.”
While the fight was on, the members loyal to Amosun allegedly stole the register and disappeared, thereby cutting short the exercise. The Police had to come in but they are yet to recover the register.
“Without the register, much cannot be done. So we must wait for the register to be recovered,” the top party chief said.
Speaking with journalists later, the ward chairman, Nofiu Osayemi said the exercise was smooth at the beginning. However, at about 10.25am, just hours after commencement, the Amosun faction struck. He confirmed that the members came with fake membership cards, which were discovered.
He added that the members insisted that their names should be in the first set of the register but the party denied them the opportunity “because as entrants to the party, the party leadership has instructed that their names should be in the supplementary list.”
While confirming that the factional members beat up other members at the venue when they realised that their mission had failed, Osayemi, who sustained injury from the attack, said the Police had taken charge.
Another member of the party, Tunji Fagbenro, who also sustained injuries, confirmed that the members who attacked party members at the registration venue were part of the Amosun faction, adding that they joined the party not long ago.
