A woman returning from farm and 10 others were reportedly shot in Ugep, headquarters of Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State on Wednesday during the rescheduled local government congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area.

Factions loyal to Pastor Usani Usani, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and Mr Clement Ebri, the former governor of the state, who are both from the area, engaged each other in a fierce gun battle.

 An indigene of the area, who did not want his name in print, said: “The two sides were arguing over the delegates list.

This degenerated into a confrontation and subsequently a gun battle.

 Many people were shot and a woman who was returning from farm was hit by a stray bullet.”

He added that the congress ended in a stalemate as people including the police ran for their lives while those shot were rushed to the Ugep General Hospital for treatment.

 In Abi, one Egbona was alleged to have escaped with the election materials leading to the opposing faction conducting a parallel congress and subsequently two executives emerged in the area, one led by Ekpe Elele and the other by Oche Ernest.

 In Obubra, Chief Ernest Irek, a stalwart of the party said: “There was a misapplication of the delegates list because some people wanted to play games by injecting some names and this led to disagreement. What we have agreed upon now is that like it was done in local governments in the northern part of the state, we are going to rely on the list with the police and INEC for those elected during the ward congresses last week.”