Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, was engaged in a heated argument with some agents at Eagle Square, Abuja, venue of the convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the wee hours of this Wednesday morning, June 8, 2022.
Amaechi, a presidential aspirant, was seen raising his voice over an issue, surrounded by his supporters.
But as a crowd gathered, he walked away while some of his supporters formed a circle around the agents.
In another ugly incident at the on-going convention, voting was temporarily suspended early this morning.
The exercise was put on hold as Kano delegates were casting their ballot in the keenly contested exercise.
Chairman of Kano APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, was seen arguing with some officials before voting was suspended.
Less than 20 of the 127 delegates from Kano had voted before the exercise was suspended.
Some of the aspirants reportedly had more than one agent at the voting points, leading to protest.
To douse tension, the Election committee ordered some persons to leave the voting area after which the exercise continued.
The 2,340 accredited delegates are voting for only 14 aspirants after the rest stepped down for Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo while Emeka Nwajiuba was nowhere to be seen at the Eagle Square venue of the convention.
In the lead-up to the exercise, 28 presidential hopefuls had picked the nomination and expression of interest forms, but five of them later pulled out.
Twenty-three aspirants later appeared before the APC presidential screening committee led by the party’s former chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.
The run-up to the special convention had been marred by intrigues over the zoning of the presidential ticket and consensus candidacy.
While a consensus candidate was said to have emerged on Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari on his part said the delegates should be allowed to decide the party’s presidential flagbearer.
The northern APC governors also canvassed for the party’s candidate to come from the southern part of the country.