Confusion enveloped the Peoples Democratic Party secretariat in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Tuesday when gunmen invaded the premises, attacking party leaders and journalists, who came for a briefing.

The hoodlums, who fired several gunshots into the air, took control of the secretariat for over an hour.

During the attack, a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly and member of the party’s Consensus Screening Committee, Mr. Kola Adefemi, had his head broken.

The politician, who our correspondent gathered fainted due to the attack, was later revived at an undisclosed hospital.

The state chairman of Correspondent Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Rotimi Ojomoyela, and Dayo Oladele, a New Nigeria Newspapers correspondent, among many others also sustained serious injuries during the attack.

The briefing was reportedly organised by some party leaders to announce the suspension of the state PDP chairman, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, and to reject the constitution of the CSC.

The party’s Deputy Chairman, Mr. Femi Bamisile; Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko; and the Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Oluwawole, were among eminent politicians from the state that had converged on the secretariat before the hoodlums invaded the premises.

Meanwhile, members of the state working committee of the party, including Oluwawole, Women Leader, Mrs. Busola Oyebode; Mr. Femi Ogunleye; Alhaji Lateef Agbaje; Secretary, Tope Aluko, and Treasurer, A.O. Aluko, had signed a statement announcing the rejection of the CSC.

The statement read, “The current situation in the management of the affairs of the party, calls for caution if the party will win the 2014 elections. We, the undersigned, wish to dissociate ourselves from the purported list of the Consensus Screening Committee.”

In a related development, Oluwawole announced the suspension of the party chairman for one month.

He alleged that the party chairman single-handedly constituted the CSC without the approval of the SWC.

He said, “The purported composition of Consensus Screening Committee, headed by our most revered Justice Edward Ojuolape, is nothing but a creation of the chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, without the support of the two-third majority of the state Working Committee.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Victor Babayemi, who said no one was arrested following the violence, added that policemen were deployed in the secretariat to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

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