How Chris Ngige escaped mob attack at APC meeting

Angry youths in Anambra attempted to attack Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, during a meeting of stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday.

The meeting, which held in Awka, the state capital, was aimed at harmonising the differences in the party’s Saturday ward congress.

Things took a different turn when aggrieved members of the party started protesting and charged at the minister, accusing him of manipulating the results of the congress.

They alleged that the minister was planning to sway the results of the exercise to his favour.

Security personnel on ground, however, saved the situation as they repelled the mob with sporadic gunshots.

Ngige was escorted out of the venue as the security situation heightened.

Earlier in the meeting, Tony Nwoye, a member of the house of representatives, and the APC candidate in the state’s governorship election in 2017, had accused Ngige of usurping the powers of the congress committee.

He said: “We have failed as a party because we do not have any position in Anambra, but It will not work for people to put this party in their pocket so that they can write election results in their houses.

“I will not let Ngige take the function of the panel. We have a panel that is supposed to conduct that congress, and they just came here today (Sunday), whereas you are trying to tell us that elections were held yesterday. How can Ngige be the one to conduct the congress when there is a committee?”

But Ngige denied the allegations, saying the party had no problem regarding the congress.

He described the congress as a “brotherly contest”, adding that “we are here to further the cause of the party.”