The All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended 17 local government caretaker chairmen and two others for their alleged roles in the last Saturday congress.
The State Working Committee (SWC) of the party approved the suspension of the affected persons for allegedly sponsoring thugs to cause mayhem during the exercise.
Some youths had reportedly torched part of the State secretariat,disrupting the exercise in Uyo.
The State publicity secretary, Nkereuwem Enyongekere, in a statement on Tuesday, said the SWC condemned the action of the youths, describing it as senseless and misplaced.
The statement reads: “The SWC is on a trail to exposing their sponsors for appropriate sanctions and in line with our party Constitution, the SWC has with immediate effect, suspended the 17 caretaker chapter chairmen and two party members for acts of gross misconduct and insubordination.
”All suspended caretaker committee chapter chairmen listed above are hereby directed to hand over all party properties in their custody to the respective deputy chairman in the affected LGAs.
”On the strength of this statement, all Deputy Caretaker committee chairmen in the affected LGAs should immediately take over the responsibilities of the party as Acting chapter chairmen.
”Subject to the provisions of our constitution and the right to fair hearing the SWC has accordingly set up a disciplinary committee to enable the affected persons to appear and defend themselves accordingly.”