BREAKING: Lagos PDP congress cancelled

BREAKING: Lagos PDP congress cancelled

The Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, elective congress, has been cancelled.

The congress was holding today, when the tension of the past few weeks peaked.

State Congress Electoral Committee, Chairman, Engr. Benson Abounu, announced the suspension.

A source told Vanguard that it had to be cancelled as thugs invaded the Tafawa Balewa Square venue with weapons, and fights broke out.

“Their intention was to rig,” the source said.

“A lot of fraudulent acts took place in their bid to rig the election, but the officials got the wind of it.

“For instance, the main gate was forced open, after accreditation was done.

“It became very obvious that there would be over-voting and that the venue had been infiltrated.

“What I saw was terrible. There were even gunshots,” the source added.

No date has been announced at the time of filing this report.

Before today’s congress

For one, there had been controversy over the chairmanship seat since the defection of Moshood Salvador to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The selection of Engr. Deji Doherty to take over from Salvador, which was subsequently nullified by the court in favour of Dr. Adegbola Dominic, started another thread in the controversy.

After Dominic’s death in August, the National Working Committee, NWC, eventually confirmed Alhaji Hassan as the Acting Chairman last week.

Then, in preparation for today’s cancelled congress, a screening committee came in from Abuja.

The team did not reveal the venue of the screening, held last Saturday, to the candidates until the last minute.

The goal of the national leadership was to birth a strong and credible Lagos State PDP that can battle APC for the control of government seat.

A lot is bound to happen now.