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Weapon-wielding youths suspected to be thugs stormed and dispersed members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attending.....
Weapon-wielding youths suspected to be thugs stormed and dispersed members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attending a scheduled constituency meeting of Ohuhu clan in Abia state.
Witnesses said the incident took place last Thursday at Umuegwu Okpuala, Ohuhu in Umuahia North Local Government Area. The constituency meeting is a regular forum of stakeholders of PDP in the five federal wards of Ohuhu clan.
According to witnesses,as the community hall was filled to capacity and the meeting about to commence full swing, the suspected thugs clutching matchetes, clubs and other dangerous weapons invaded the venue. They reportedly chased the participants away, inflicting bodily injury on some persons in the process; scattered the hall, pulled down canopies and destroyed the public address system as well as a number of cars. No life was, however, lost.
It was not immediately known who sponsored the youths but it is anticipated that politics in Ohuhu land would be fierce as many of their sons are eyeing the governorship slot of the state.
Some of the contenders include: former PDP state chairman, Chief Uzodinma Okpara,son of late Premier of Eastern Nigeria, Dr. Micheal Okpara, Chief Ikechi Emenike, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu (former NDDC chairman and currently senior special adviser to the) President on Public Communication) and Chief Obinna Aguocha.
While Okpara and Emenike have made their intentions public, Ugochukwu and Aguocha are yet to do same.
Both Okpara and Ugochukwu are from same Afugiri ward which hosted the disrupted meeting.
Organisers of the meeting told newsmen that they duly rented the Umuegwu Okpuala Community Hall adjacent country home of the Okparas for the meeting and also sought and obtained permission from the police.
Sources alleged that youths from Umuegwu-Okpuala who saw the meeting as an affront on their kinsman, Okpara, disrupted the gathering as it was gathered that the rotatory stakeholders' meeting reportedly sympathetic to Ugochukwu, who has emerged as the undisputed leader of the new-look PDP in Abia State.
Chairman of Umuahia North PDP, Mr. William Ekeleme, who expressed disappointment at the behaviour of the youths, said the meeting had to be relocated to Umule-Obiohuru Community Hall to avert a violent clash.