The police in Ekiti State said they are unable to identify those who carried out a violent attack on the secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday.
Two factions of the party had been at daggers drawn over the outcome of the ward congresses that held across the state last Saturday.
One of the groups loyal to the former governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, claimed its group swept the polls in victory, while the other led by a senator, Biodun Olujimi, has also claimed victory at the polls.
But while the appeals committee sat to hear the complaints arising from the congresses at the party’s secretariat, hoodlums stormed the place with dangerous weapons and unleashed violence on the people.
A number of persons were reportedly injured in the course of the attacks, while the appeal committee’s sitting was disrupted.
Blame Game
Incidentally, both factions have engaged in a blame game over who perpetrated the violence.
Ms Olujimi blamed Mr Fayose and his supporters for portraying the PDP as party of violence by mobilising thugs to where the appeal panel was expected to sit.
“Because we caught them in that dastardly act at Petim Hotel on Saturday, they thought they could right the wrongs with the appeal panel by being violent,” she said.
“Just because we caught them, they were on the offensive and they had to put up some violence. I don’t like violence and we will not allow violence to define us as a party.
“Whoever wants violence must either drop that and stay or ship out of the PDP, we won’t tolerate that.
“They beat some people, I mean some of my supporters, but I was not touched. If they were right why were they violent today?
“You could all attest to the fact that no collation was done regarding the ward congress. We didn’t do any collation, so the Taraba deputy has no results to present.”
Mr Fayose, speaking through his media aide, Lere Olayinka, said Ms Olujimi was responsible for the attack.
“They went to the Petim on Saturday with thugs and today, they went to the secretariat with thugs while going to submit their petition, so I have no reason to mobilise thugs because we won convincingly,” Mr Fayose said.
“I only went to the secretariat to submit how the election went and they went to submit their petition, so I needed nothing like thugs to do that, so they should be held liable for that thuggery.”
Police intervention
The police in Ekiti had since intervened and deployed armed officers to ward off trouble makers at the secretariat.
Police Public Relations Officer, Sunday Abutu, told journalists that they were yet to identify the assailants despite the fact that the attacks were done in broad daylight.
He said the police were still investigating the attacks, but at the moment would keep the armed policemen at the secretariat until when peace could be guaranteed.
“Since yesterday that the incident happened, we have been on investigation and we have not been able to identify who those hoodlums are for now,” he said.
According to Mr Abutu, “investigation is ongoing and the security men are stationed there not to allow further breach of the peace”.
“We did not envisage any crisis at the event, but we were prepared for it,” he said. “The men will remain there and we will only withdraw them at our discretion.”
