About three thousand policemen are to be deployed to the state congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) holding today in Ilorin, the state capital.

Spokesman for the state police command, Mr. Ajayi Okasina, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), told our reporter on phone that the move became necessary to avoid ‘any embarrassment’ during the congress and a recurrence of the ugly incidence that followed the ward congress of the party.

About three persons were feared dead during a violent clash among people suspected to be members of the party in the course of the ward congress last week.

Seven persons were arrested over the clash. Four persons, also suspected to be members of the PDP were equally arrested less than 24 hours after the clash, for allegedly being in possession of firearms. Okasina said the command was up to the task of securing the participants as both conventional and riot policemen will be engaged along with intelligence officers, who will work on the venue and participants.

At least three former council chairmen in the state are among a total of eight persons seeking to clinch the chairmanshippositionof the party at the congress. The outcome of the congress is expected to indicate the swing of power within the party in the state, given the confluence of personalities seeking to become the real leader of the party in preparation for the forthcoming general elections.

Some of the candidates in today’s congress include former chairman of Offa, Chief Segun Olawoyin, former Chairman of Ifelodun, Chief Rex Olawoye and the former Chairman of Kaima Local Government, Alhaji Inuwa Musa Kallah.

Other contestants are the party’s interim Publicity Secretary, Mariam Alhassan; a new defector, Alhaji AbdulKadir Manko, Reverend Bunmi Olusona and Prince Sunday Fagbemi, former Deputy governorship candidate of the defunct Congress for progressives Change (CPC) in the 2011 elections.

A source within the party said the chairmanship position has been zoned to Kwara South while Kwara Central is expected to produce the state Secretary. Olawoyin, Olawoye, Olusona and Fagbemi are from the south while Kallah, Mano and Alhassan hail from the northern district. Many see the emergence of candidates from the north in the race as indications that the party was yet to perfect it internal arrangement over the module for power sharing among the various interest groups within the party.