On Monday, hoodlums who are suspected to be political thugs broke all rules and attacked PDP members with cane at the Isabo, Abeokuta, location of the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal.
This occurred when the case submitted by Oladipupo Adebutu, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in the governor’s race, against Dapo Abiodun, a candidate for the All Progressives Congress, was heard by the State Election case Tribunal in Isabo, Abeokuta on Monday.
The state’s March 18 governorship election was won by Abiodun, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Adebutu was not pleased with the development and took Abiodun to court to contest his victory.
The tribunal set Monday for the first hearing of the Adebutu v. Abiodun petition.
The political thugs invaded the tribunal’s grounds with canes, also known as pankere, in their hands and freely wielded them on the opposition members as the court’s sitting got underway.
Police officers and security personnel turned their heads away as the thugs, who were not near the tribunal’s members, were spotted using canes to strike their political adversaries.
These goons beat the victims and drove them away.
It was observed that, despite that the road that leads to the court was barricaded at both ends by the police, that gesture did not stop the hoodlums from attacking their targets.
The situation became a free-for-all as the political thugs roamed about the premises with canes in their hands while police made no attempt to arrest them or stop them from causing chaos.
A policeman who did not want his name in print said, “There is nothing we can do, we can’t arrest them. Everything about Ogun is always different.”
A PDP member, who was one of those attacked by the thugs, said he lost his phone, money and other items in his possession while being beaten.
As of the time of filing this report, some members of the opposition have fled the court premises to avoid further attacks.
Several attempts to contact the new Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola failed.
Odutola who replaced the immediate-past PPRO of the state command, SP, Abimbola Oyeyemi had yet to officially resume.
