Ekiti 2014: Labour Party Thugs Shoot APC Chieftain, Vandalize Prodalize Properties In Ikere Ekiti
Scores of All Progressives Congress (APC) members in Ikere-Ekiti were on Saturday visited with terror by suspected thugs of Labour Party (LP) while their properties were also vandalized.
The generator, standing fans and chairs in the APC secretariat in the town were brought out of the office and set on fire.
Campaign billboards and posters of APC gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, right from the outskirts of the town to its streets were also not left out of the orgy of violence.
The incident which happened while the Labour Party was rounding off what it termed its South senatorial mega rally left residents of the town fleeing for their lives at the sound of gunshots and rampaging thugs who were brandishing various dangerous weapons.
A chieftain of APC, Otunba Femi Ayodele, was shot in the neck while his office was also vandalized.
Narrating his ordeal from his hospital bed at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Otunba Ayodele, who could hardly speak, said he was alerted by people that his office was being vandalized by Labour Party members who had come for a campaign rally in the town.
“I was at the engagement ceremony of one of my brothers when I was called around 4PM that Labour Party members had vandalized my office. I immediately called the Police and they promised to be there.
“Thirty minutes later, I decided to go to my office to see what had been done. I saw a dark giant man destroying everything in my office. On sighting us, he fled. Seconds later, a Labour Party branded bus conveying armed men drove by. They were shooting sporadically, while everyone took cover. It was in the process that something hit me in the neck. I later found out that it was a bullet. I was initially taken to the General Hospital in Ikere from where I was referred to the Teaching Hospital here in Ado-Ekiti.”
Another victim of the attack, Funso Daramola, who is also a son of the APC women leader in Ikere, had his shop vandalized. According to him, he was in his shop when one of the hoodlums identified him as a member of APC, leaving him no choice but to run for his dear life. He later returned to find his shop vandalized and looted by the hoodlums.
“I was in my shop when they came and started vandalizing Fayemi’s billboard in front of my shop. One of them pointed at me, saying I am an APC member and that they should deal with me. I quickly ran away because I couldn’t fight them as they were armed with guns, axes and cutlasses.”
Daramola said the hoodlums were wearing LP vests, adding that he also identified a known thug from Ondo State, Ade Basket, among the hoodlums.
“They said they came with Governor Mimiko,” Daramola said.
When our correspondent visited the office of Otunba Ayodele who was shot, virtually everything in the office had been vandalized.
The mother of Otunba Ayodele, Mrs. Rachel Abe, also spoke with newsmen.
“All of us were at an engagement ceremony when we were informed that my son’s office was being vandalized by Labour Party members. On arriving here, we saw two men destroying everything in sight. People warned that I should not go near the office so that the hoodlums might not attack me.”
The Senator representing Ekiti South senatorial district, Anthony Adeniyi, said the chairman, ward chairmen and the women leaders of APC in Ikere-Ekiti were holding a meeting at his residence when they learnt that a member of the party, Otunba Femi Ayodele, had been shot by suspected LP thugs.
“We quickly halted the meeting when we learnt of the attack and that there was pandemonium in town. As a lawyer, I had been doubting the allegation that the Labour Party is unleashing terror on people, but with what we witnessed in Ikere yesterday (Saturday), vividly, by being around at that time and going out to see for myself…One of our honourable members, Yomi Daramola, who was coming from Ilorin was pursued when he got to Oke-Ikere, near St. Peter. They were going to machete him.
“Another person in my ward was attacked. My ward is almost about 1 kilometre from the venue of the rally. They moved into the place and met him where he was relaxing at a beer joint. They went and axed him, not even machete. He is in the hospital now.”
When asked about the allegation by the Labour Party that the APC was responsible for the attack, Senator Adeniyi described it as a desperate bid by the Labour Party to give the APC a bad name, knowing full well that it was destined to fail and had therefore resorted to violence with the aim of causing pandemonium so that the June 21 election may be declared violent and inconclusive.
“Most of the people that I saw at the rally were imported. That is their stock in trade. We have 26 days to the election. We will continue to be peaceful. This is our state. Ikere is my home. It was because we decided not to reciprocate, that was why we had the little peace that we had yesterday. If my people had retaliated, we would have been saying another thing now. Ask members of Labour Party in Ikere if they have ever been harassed or accosted by APC members. Everyone goes about in peace.
“What we know is that on June 21, we will go to the battle field, not the battle of hooliganism, but the battle of balloting. We would continue to tolerate them, but there must be an end to this. If this guy had died…He is one of our bright guys.
“Let’s sound the last and final warning to them. Any time they make this attempt again, if we retaliate – I am not encouraging it, but as a lawyer, I know the law permits self-defence. If they are going to the extent of killing our people, we won’t sit down haplessly and be looking at them.”
The spokesperson of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Dimeji Daniels, told newsmen that from his investigation, he gathered that the AIT correspondents were attacked because they caught the hoodlums on tape perpetrating the heinous crime.
“From the evidence on ground, it is clear that the Labour Party is the aggressor. If they claim we attacked them, did we also shoot our own members? Did we machete our own people? The watery and puerile defence by the Labour Party to cover the crime that its imported thugs perpetrated in Ikere-Ekiti yesterday cannot stand in the face of facts.
“We call on security agencies and all well-meaning Nigerians to caution the Labour Party and prevent it from turning Ekiti into a battle-ground,” Daniels said.
(Source: Bio Reports)
