Hoodlums disrupt PDP North-West zonal congress

The North-West Zonal Congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ended abruptly on Saturday after it was disrupted by hoodlums.

Party members had gathered at the International Trade Fair Complex in the Kaduna State capital for the exercise which was attended by some PDP chieftains.

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and a former National Caretaker Chairman of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, were among those present while Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, was absent at the congress.

NewsWireNGR gathered that the congress was disrupted by thugs midway into the voting process by delegates from the seven states of the north-west region to elect their zonal chairman and other executive members.

During the chaos, ballot papers and other voting materials were destroyed – a situation that forced most of the party chieftains to hurriedly leave the venue for fear of being caught in the attack.

The Chairman of the Media Sub-Committee of the congress, Abdulrahman Usman, told Channels Television that the fracas was caused by delegates from Kano State over who would emerge as the PDP chairman in the zone.

He explained that as soon as the exercise was disrupted, the congress was put on hold to avoid further escalation of the crisis.

Usman, however, said that the leaders of the party would meet to address all pending issues before fixing a new date for the zonal congress.

Sources said there were two top contenders for the position of the zonal chairman from Kano State, Senator Bello Gwarzo and Muhammad Yusuf.