Violence at Ondo APC secretariat: The beginning of a drawn battle, By Hon. Demola Ijabiyi

[My Personal Narrative and Response to the Violence at the APC State Secretariat in Ondo State]

I write this with a heavy heart — not only as a stakeholder in our great party, but as a victim of a painful and humiliating experience that has left deep scars on my body and in my spirit. What happened at the Ondo State APC secretariat in Akure was not simply a disruption of a meeting; it was the violent expression of a growing internal divide that many of us had hoped would never reach this point.

Within our party, two clear tendencies have emerged — the Pro-BTO tendency and the Pro-Aiyedatiwa tendency. I belong to the Pro-BTO camp, not out of hatred for anyone, and certainly not out of hostility toward Governor Aiyedatiwa, who remains the sitting Governor and a leader we must respect. It’s a choice between performance and excellence and living in the self-denial of tormenting mediocrity. My political alignment has never meant enmity. Unfortunately, in today’s atmosphere, loyalty is increasingly interpreted as hostility, and difference as opposition.

The belief among many supporters of the governor appears to be that the State Chairman is Pro-BTO, and therefore any meeting called by him must automatically be dominated by BTO supporters. That assumption, whether true or false, became the justification for what unfolded before our eyes. Instead of dialogue, force was chosen. Instead of persuasion, intimidation ruled the day. True leadership competes through results, not through force.

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What should have been a routine stakeholders’ meeting ahead of the ward congresses became a battlefield. Violence was unleashed — not randomly, but with a clear purpose: to scatter the gathering and pave the way for another meeting dominated by the Pro-Aiyedatiwa tendency. And indeed, after the chaos, another meeting was later held under the leadership of the Governor and his deputy.

Those of us who lived through the earlier violence cannot pretend that sequence means nothing.

I remember the shouting, the threats, the fear that swept through the hall like a storm. I remember respected elders running for safety, men whose years of sacrifice for the party should have earned them honour, not humiliation. I remember helping an injured elderly man out of the building, thinking only of safety, only to be attacked from behind and beaten while insults rained down on me. The physical pain was real, but the emotional wound cut deeper. What haunts me most is not the blows themselves but the betrayal — the realization that this was not an attack from outsiders, but from people who wear the same political colours as I do.

Since that incident, bitterness has settled in my heart like an unwelcome shadow. Trauma does not disappear simply because the noise fades. Every recollection brings back the panic, the confusion, the humiliation. I have asked myself repeatedly: how did we get here? When did internal disagreement become grounds for violence?

Let me say this clearly: being Pro-BTO does not make one anti-Aiyedatiwa. Supporting one political tendency should never translate into exclusion, fear, or physical assault. Our party is large enough for diverse loyalties, but it cannot survive if one group seeks to dominate by force while others are expected to endure in silence.

My response today is therefore both personal and political. I demand that our national headquarters take decisive and necessary action to address and redress this situation. This is not a matter that can be brushed aside with rhetoric or temporary calm. If justice is not done, the bitterness created will grow into a longer, deeper conflict capable of damaging the party beyond Ondo State.

At the same time, let no one mistake our pain for weakness. Those of us who were brutalized and traumatized will not be found to be weaklings — nor are we unprepared or inadequate to restore and maintain our dignity in the political space. We seek peace, yes. But peace must never be confused with surrender to intimidation. History will remember not those who shouted the loudest, but those who stood their ground when dignity was under siege.

I still believe in dialogue. I still believe in the APC as a political family. But families survive only when fairness prevails and when wrongs are acknowledged and corrected.

The seed of bitterness has been planted. Whether it grows into reconciliation or into a drawn battle depends on what happens next — on whether justice speaks louder than fear, and whether dignity is restored to those who were made to suffer for simply showing up to a meeting of their own party.