THE last may not have been heard about the spate of hostility unfolding in Ekiti State as the camps of two leading contenders in the race for next month election again accused each other of perpetrating violence.
According to the All Progressives Congress (APC), suspected thugs of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Ayo Fayose, allegedly descended on their members in Efon area of the state during a ward meeting with dangerous weapons.
The ruling party in the state claimed that its members sustained serious injuries and many properties were destroyed.
Also yesterday, the Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation (AFCO) alleged an attack on the convoy of the PDP candidate at Fajuyi Roundabout, Ado-Ekiti, by APC thugs.
But narrating their own story, APC members said they were holding their ward meetings in the 10 wards of the town when PDP thugs started moving from one ward to the other attacking APC members and state officials who were around to monitor them.
“The thugs were armed with axes, cutlasses, guns and charms. They dealt machete cut on one Babade Akinola from ward five. They also destroyed the house of the security man to the Local Government Chairman, Mr. Adio Folayan and beat up his wife. A female teenager who was hawking goods was beaten up because her parents are APC members.
“As if that was not enough, the Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism, Chief (Mrs.) Aderonke Okusanya, a native of Efon went to the Police Station to lodge complaint but behold, right there and then in the presence of the Police Area Commander, she was attacked with a knife by Fayose’s thugs and she could not be protected.
“The knife tore her dress into pieces while her driver was stabbed in the mouth. The back windscreen of her vehicle was smashed and the car is still parked at the police station,” the party stated.
Mrs. Okusanya was reportedly attacked by one Gbenga Alaga, a Fayose thug, while the windscreen of her car was also allegedly smashed by one Femi Okeya, who was said to be a Fayose thug.
The party also recalled that after a Labour Party (LP) rally in Ikere-Ekiti at the weekend, some thugs who were reportedly working for Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele under the command of one Ade Basket shot a member of the APC, Otunba Femi Ayodele, in the neck. Ayodele is still receiving treatment for the wounds he sustained.
The thugs also reportedly wounded many APC supporters and destroyed billboards of Governor Kayode Fayemi, the APC secretariat in Ikere and burnt the generating set there.
“It is unfortunate that the police has been looking the other way while APC members are being attacked daily. The incident in Efon where a State Commissioner is attacked right in the presence of the Area Commander who could not protect her calls for concern.
“We call on the security agents to be alive to their responsibility in protecting lives and property of our members while we appeal to APC members to remain calm in the face of daily provocation. Even though our members will not take laws into their hands, they may be left with no alternative than to defend themselves if the security agents could no longer do so,” the party stated’
However, AFCO’s Director of Media and Publicity, Chief Gboyega Aribisogan, in another statement, accused some APC thugs of attacking Fayose’s personal vehicle at about 1p.m. at Fajuyi Park in Ado-Ekiti, believing that the PDP candidate was in the vehicle.
Aribisogan claimed the thugs ran into the Government House immediately they carried out the attack.
He stated that the APC-led administration in the state had concluded plan to attack any gathering of PDP supporters in the state.
The AFCO spokesperson said a meeting was held on Saturday, where it was concluded that henceforth, “no PDP gatherings must be allowed in the state.”
He said an attack on PDP members in Efon-Alaaye and Otun-Ekiti on Sunday, and yesterday’s attack on Fayose’s vehicle was an aftermath of the APC devilish plot.
