Some leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State, including the party’s Caretaker Committee chairman, Ade Adetimehin have been battered by political thugs.
Hoodlums invaded and disrupted the party’s meeting conveyed ahead of the ruling party’s Ward Congresses in the State, leaving the member representing the State on the Board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Otito Atikase, and the former lawmaker, Success Torhukerhojo badly bruised in Tuesday’s incident.
Multiple reports say suspected to be members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), also crack down on the former Deputy Speaker, Hon Abayomi Akinruntan, driver of the chairman, Friday Ogbaide in the melee.
Also, a former chairman of Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government, Hon Dayo Akinsuroju and former Commissioner, Hon Saka-Yusuf Ogunleye, were also not spared by the hoodlums.
Trouble started when political thugs stormed a stakeholders’ meeting of the APC, forcing party members to flee to different directions in panic and abruptly halting the gathering.
Speaking from his hideouts, Adetimehin alleged that the stakeholders meeting was to prepare the ground for the Ward Congress of the party which begins on Wednesday.
He said he had met with the members of the Congress Committee sent from Abuja to oversee the Congress. He said one of the conditions was for a stakeholders meeting, which was disrupted by hoodlums believe to be acting at the behest of a prominent political figure in the State government.
“They came in force this morning and ordered everybody to leave. They claimed the governor owns the party. We told them we were not challenging anybody’s authority.
“But they attacked us. They dragged me to the floor, I didn’t bother, they took away my two phones from my pocket, along with my wristwatch”.
“All they are saying is that they will kill and they were shooting periodically, many of our members are 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 didn’t want Congress”.
In the meantime, police authorities in the State have been duly briefed about the incident, with a decisive action expected to be taken against the alleged attackers at the event.
May God have mercy on them