Ahead of the Wednesday ward congress of the All Progressive Congress in Ondo state, armed political thugs have invaded and disrupted the stakeholders meeting, attacking and injuring party leaders including the state party chairman, Engineer Ade Adetimehin.
The stakeholders meeting was held at the party’s Secretariat in Akure, the state capital.
Reports had it that the sponsored thugs arrived at the venue of the meeting with dangerous weapons and attacked the party leaders.
The state party chairman and other party leaders were attacked and dragged by the thugs while the meeting was ongoing.
Others leaders of the party attacked at the meeting, include,Ademola ljabiyi, Saka Yusuf, Otito Atikase, Muyiwa Asagunla, Akin Sowore, Rasheed Badmus ,Yetunde Adeyanju ,Sola Ajisafe, Dr Koka Ademujimi and Chief Bode Sunmonu.
Speaking with newsmen, the party’s Chairman, who expressed surprise over the incident, said that the thugs dragged him on the floor from the conference hall of the meeting to the ground floor of the party Secretariat.
According to Adetimehin ,” l was the target of the attack, they were all shouting my name as they entered the hall, they beat me blue black before dragging me on the floor.
The chairman said that his two handsets, wristwatch and the sum of N210,000 were forcibly removed from his pocket by the political thugs.
He explained that his driver who tried to secure his release was beaten to coma and was resuscitated at a private hospital.
Adetimehin said “Around this time yesterday, the Congress committee came all the way from Abuja. They met us at the party secretariat, about 13 of them.
“We had a meeting with them, those of us in attendance, my humble self, Organising Secretary, the Special Adviser to Mr. Governor on political and legislative matters.
“We were in the secretariat for close to two hours, where the Chairman of the committee told us to hold a stakeholder today, and that I should call a stakeholder today.
He added that ” We both agreed to hold the meeting by 12 noon. Then we sent the message out to all of the party stakeholders to attend.
“I called the Chairman of the committee to send out a text for the meeting and we agreed to meet by 12.30pm. By 12 noon, the hall was filled to capacity.
According to him ” l called the state governor, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to inform him about the development and we both agreed.
“I told him that after the meeting, myself and the committee would visit him to meet him, because it is their duty to tell us the modality for the Congress and how we are going to do the Congress.
“After speaking with him, I told him that I heard from the grapevine that some people are mobilising to the secretariat to distrupt the meeting.
“He said no that such a thing cannot happen under his watch, that he will take charge and will not allow violence in the state and promised to caution anybody behind it.
” But to my surprise, some 30 minutes later, the place was invaded by thugs, with cutlasses, guns. They beat hell out of all leaders and members, except those who are for them.
“They dragged me on the floor, I didn’t bother, they took away my two phones from my pocket, with my wristwatch.
“All they are saying is that they will kill and they were shooting periodically, many of our members were in the hospital for treatment.
“When they knew they could not harm me, they went for my driver and beat him seriously. A lot of people were wounded. The demand they were making when they came was that they don’t want Congress.”
Also speaking on the attack, former Commissioner for Community Development and Cooperative Services, in the state, Mrs. Yetunde Adeyanju, specifically alleged the state governor, Aiyedatiwa of being behind the attack.
Adeyanju expressed disappointment over the development, ” I was at the venue of the meeting. I saw everything that happened. I went there to attend the meeting. But to our surprise, thugs came and they were shouting, we are from Aiyedatiwa.
“They specifically mentioned Aiyedatiwa. That Aiyedatiwa sent them and they will not allow any Congress to take place in the state. They stated that the governor is in charge.
“The governor is the leader of the state and the governor is in charge and nobody can query the authority of the governor, and anybody that wants to talk about Congress in Ondo State will be assassinated.
“So you can see that our lives are in danger. It has never been this bad in the history of Ondo State.
“The last time we saw this nonsense was far back in 2007, Ondo State has grown beyond this, the last time we saw this was PDP versus Labour Party and we’ve grown beyond that.
”They should please help us appeal to the governor, that what the governor is trying to do in Ondo State It’s not good, it’s not in the interest of Ondo State. Stakeholders in this state should cry out loud.
“The thugs keep shouting that Aiyedatiwa is the leader of the party in the state and nobody is disputing that but they should allow the Congress to hold peacefully.
” I want to appeal to the security people, journalists, please help us cry out loud to the national leadership of the party. We don’t want violence again in Ondo state.
While condemning the attack by the thugs, the state representative on the board of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Otito Atikase, condemned the attack by political thugs loyal to the governor.
According to Atikase, the governor has not at any point in time informed the leadership of the party of his desire not to hold congress in the state, saying I want to believe those behind this attack are carrying out the bidding of the governor.
He said, “as far as I’m concerned, by virtue of the content of his body language, he’s not comfortable with the way things are going in the state APC. Because if he doesn’t believe that there shouldn’t be Congress, this kind of situation wouldn’t have raised its ugly head.
“I was the first casualty. Yes, because when the guys were coming in, I was the first person to encounter and confronted them at the staircase. In fact, they wanted to throw me down from the top floor, but I was able to struggle myself out of them and they warned me that my money has been paid, that they will come for me.
“I put this on social media, that Mr. Governor has paid for my money. So if anything happens to me in Ondo State, Mr. Governor should be held responsible, because I have never seen this kind of politics in the politics of Ondo State. It’s a dangerous dimension.
“What they are bringing to Ondo State politics is a dangerous dimension. It is not part of our culture, where party leaders will sit down, stakeholders will sit down to hold meetings for the progress of the party, and someone somewhere will go and organize thugs to come and beat them up.
“It’s very embarrassing, the way they embarrass the chairman of the party today. In fact, you will weep if you’re there. So that is the situation. And all I can say is that Mr. Governor is behind the scenes facilitator of this thuggery”
Also, a Chieftain of the party in the state, Olumuyiwa Asagunla, also expressed worries but warned the state governor not to take the state back to Egypt.
Asagunla said “I was upstairs at the Secretariat when these hoodlums numbering about 200 invaded the premises, ordering everybody out of the hall, attacking, beating and dragging us out of the hall.
“They told us that the governor has ordered that no Congress should take place and people started running for safety. We have so many of our people in the hospital now. we should have nothing less than seven people on admissions. They dragged the State chairman on the floor, seized his driver and he was beaten to coma.
Hon. Ademola Ijabiyi who sustained a fracture narrated that he narrowly escaped the mayhem by disguising himself as an aide assisting an injured elderly man out of the building.
Ijabiyi said ” However, upon reaching the ground floor, l was attacked from behind, sustaining blows on my back and leg and was verbally abused.
Describing the scene as “total mayhem,” he said the violence created panic among party members and visitors, forcing many to flee the premises for safety.
He condemned the attack as an assault on democratic engagement and internal party cohesion, warning that such actions, if unchecked, could destabilize the state’s political environment.
