Twelve people were feared injured and over eight vehicles vandalised on Thursday as supporters of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party clashed in Nasarawa State.
The incident occurred when one of the vehicles on Alhaji Yusus Agabi’s convoy was attacked. Agabi is one of the governorship aspirants in the state who was on his way to the PDP’s secretariat.
In a reprisal, the PDP supporters reportedly pounced on a vehicle belonging to the APC, injuring 12 people in the process while eight vehicles were vandalised.
The situation caused heavy traffic on the Jos-Makurdi road, leaving commuters travelling through Lafia-Makurdi and Enugu for the eastern part of the country stranded. Passengers going to Kano, Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory were also stranded for hours.
Speaking to our correspondent, one of the passengers, Musa Haruna, who ran into the traffic snarl, expressed worry about the situation caused by the clash.
Some hoodlums, who took law into their hands in the name of a political rally, also compounded the situation.
The confusion, which lasted for several hours, also caused panic in the state. It left the Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Godiya Akwahiki, representing Nasarawa North Constituency, stranded until the intervention of security agents who paved the way for the people to pass.
An eyewitness account revealed that some APC thugs attacked the convoy of one of the governorship aspirants on the platform of the PDP, Agabi, who was going to inform the state chairman of the party of his intention to summit his nomination form in Abuja tomorrow (today).
A source told our correspondent that the attack on the APC vehicle, which was passing through PDP secretariat, was a reprisal.
According to another eyewitness account, it was the intervention of the security operatives who quickly mobilised their men to the scene that brought the situation under control. He said otherwise, the secretariat would have been set ablaze by the hoodlums.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that those injured were taken to Dalhatu Specialist Hospital, Dash, for treatment.
