By Peter Duru

The Benue State Police Command has averted what would have resulted in  a major bloodbath in Okpokwu local government area of the state, following the  arrest  of  15 persons suspected to have been hired to cause commotion in the rescheduled ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The command also impounded an official car loaded with arms and other dangerous weapons. The  recovered Toyota Corolla car with plate number  LG 63 PKG as gathered, belong to on one of the Chairmanship aspirants at the rescheduled but stalemated ward congresses of the PDP. The vehicle which is currently at the  Okpokwu Divisional Headquarters,  was said be conveying some of the suspects to venues of the congresses at about 9am, last Sunday ,when police operatives  who acted on tip off intercepted them

Okpokwu local government area, which is  the hometown of the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has in the the last few months witnessed rising political tension, thereby  leading to several postponement of the PDP ward congresses in the area.

The crisis , is  a fallout of the alleged insistence of the state chairman of the party , to allow only 600 party members from each of the 13 wards in the area to participate in the congresses, a decision that was described as  contrary to the party’s guideline which provides that all card carrying members of the PDP should exercise their franchise.

When contacted, Deputy Police Public Relations Officer  for Benue command,  Assistant Superintendent of Police ,  Ejike Alaribe,  confirmed that 15 hoodlums were arrested  with some exhibits but did not give further details. He simply stated that  “what I can tell you is that some persons were arrested with exhibits but nobody has told me anything about arms and ammunition”.

Alarabe added that the arrerested suspects have been transferred to the Command Headquarters in Makurdi for further investigations, explaining that  the arrest was consequent upon the increased security surveillance of the entire local government by security operatives who he said  maintained utmost vigilance in the area owing to its volatility.