There was pandemonium in Abeokuta on Thursday as supporters of the All Progressives Congress and Allied Peoples Movement in Ogun State clashed during campaign tour of Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that trouble started when the campaign teams of the state APC governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun, and the team of a member of House of Representatives representing Abeokuta North/Odeda/Obafemi-Owode constituency and a candidate of the Allied People Movement, Mikky Kassim, met at Elega junction in Ward 4 of the local government.
A source within the campaign trains told our correspondent that the two groups met at the junction where a road construction was going on, causing traffic.
It was gathered that Kassim reportedly alighted from his vehicle to control the traffic but tension built up when the supporters of APC sighted him and assumed that he was at the place to attack Abiodun and his supporters.
The armed policemen in both campaign teams, however, managed the situation as they fired into the air to scare the hoodlums.
We however gathered that despite the efforts by policemen to avert the clash between the supporters of the two parties, they attacked themselves with dangerous weapons.
Supporters from both sides sustained injuries while many properties were vandalised.
As at the last count, no fewer than 12 persons sustained injuries.
It was also gathered that few minutes after the clash, supporters of APM who were waiting for the arrival of Kassim at Ward 5 were attacked as many supporters including elderly people were injured from the scene.
One of the victims who spoke with our correspondent at her hospital bed where she was receiving treatment, Alhaja Larogun, said some masked thugs allegedly wearing Abiodun’s T-Shirt and caps attacked the APM supporters with dangerous weapons including gun and machetes.
It was further observed that two vehicles parked in front of a family house belonging to Alhaji Sarafa Isola, the campaign Director-General of the APM governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, had their windscreen destroyed.
Those persons who sustained injury were rushed to the state hospital while a barber’s shop beside the campaign ground was also destroyed.
– Punch
