Over 20 suspected policemen in masks stormed the venue of a crucial meeting of the Labour Party (LP) in Aba, Abia State on Saturday, ordered party members to stay quiet and ended up disrupting the meeting while trying to effect an arrest.
Our correspondent gathered that about five of the masked men walked up to the high table and told the Secretary of the LP’s Local Government Election Committee, Prince G. O. Ndubueze, that he was under arrest.
The situation caused chaos in one of the popular hotels in Aba, the venue of the meeting, as LP members insisted the police would not take Ndubueze away because they refused to present a warrant of arrest to the meeting.
Protesting the action of the police, over 500 members of the party marched to the street with Ndubueze to the Aba Area police command.
Meanwhile, in a short interview with our correspondent, while the action was ongoing, Ndubueze accused Governor Alex Otti of seeking to impose chairmanship and councillorship candidates in the November 2 local government election.
Ndubueze who said he is yet to understand why he should be arrested, stressed that no matter what happens next, he would not bow to intimidation from Gov. Otti, whom he insisted was responsible for the situation at the meeting.
“I didn’t get any warrant of arrest from anywhere. I don’t even know whether they are policemen, but as law law-abiding citizen, I’m going with the police.
“But I will never bow to intimidation from Gov. Alex Otti. We won’t allow him to impose candidates in this local government election.
“This is a governor who came to power through a legitimate election but wants to impose candidates. The Labour Party in Abia state won’t tolerate imposition.”
The information available to our correspondent has it that Abia LP is currently a divided house with two different camps expressing two different opinions and loyal with some loyal to the government while others are loyal to the party’s National Working Committee in Abuja.
Meanwhile, as of when filing this report, LP members under the camp not loyal to the state government are protesting the action of the police and marched towards the Aba Area police command, at Hospital Road.