Police cordon off APC national secretariat over protest rumour

Armed policemen were drafted to the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.

This followed rumour of a planned protest by some aggrieved party members.

Six patrol vehicles of police personnel from the Wuse Division of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command were stationed at strategic places on and around Blantyre Street leading to the party secretariat.

 It was gathered that the party’s leadership invited the armed policemen to the secretariat, following a security report that some “disgruntled party members were planning to protest at the secretariat”.

Around 11:30 a.m, security was tightened near the secretariat: all roads leading to the area were cordoned off while armed policemen searched humans and vehicles going and leaving the party’s secretariat.

Patrol vehicles were strategically positioned at Valencia Hotel and Barcelona Hotel ends of Balantrye Street; another van was postponed directly behind the secretariat on Ibrahim Babangida Way to prevent the protesters from accessing the secretariat.

By 1.39 p.m, personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) Special Force, on a patrol van and power bikes, were seen patrolling along Blantyre Street to provide additional security backups. Some women party members from Bauchi State, who followed their leader to the party’s headquarters in the morning, were kept outside till 3 p.m.

A security operative attached to the party confidentially told our correspondent: “We had security report that some people have plans to come and protest here. The national leadership ordered the deployment of police and other security agencies to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

“This is the second time we are seeing this kind of deployment at the secretariat. It showed that some party members are aggrieved, but there is a limit to what they can do to continue to stop the protesters.”

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