Ministers of the Muhammadu Buhari government took their town hall meeting campaign to Akwa Ibom State in southern Nigeria on Monday, June 13, 2016 where they engaged citizens of the state on the achievements of the Buhari government.
At the Le Meridien Hotel in Uyo, the state’s capital, Lai Mohammed, the minister of information led a team of ministers made up of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, Pastor Usani Usani, minister of Niger Delta affairs, Ms Amina Mohammed, minister of environment, Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning, and the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu.
The town hall meeting was intended to sell the Buhari administration to the people of Akwa Ibom and was televised live on the state-run television network, NTA.
The event was hosted by the state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel who opened the event with a welcome address and excused himself soon after to attend to some other engagements.
After the governor left, the town hall meeting proceeded with presentations, questions and answers when things began to go downhill when some All Progressives Congress (APC) youth decided to start chanting, “APC! Change!” as Lai Mohammed called on the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) South South chapter to speak.
Nigerian students who were present at the assembly began to shout down the APC youth. The leader of the South South students association stood up and denounced the APC youth saying that they should stop chanting their party’s slogan because the event was a federal government event and not a political party event.
But the APC youth were adamant and continued to chant, “APC! Change!”. That is when things went haywire. The two groups almost came to blows. It took the intervention of some students to prevail on the APC youth to stop shouting their party slogan. That was when calm was restored to the event.