The Lagos East Senatorial candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Adeola Adebanjo, has been hospitalised after suffering a broken leg during an attack on party members in Lagos.
Adebanjo reportedly sustained the injury when an iron pierced his leg while he was trying to escape from suspected political thugs who invaded an NDC town hall meeting in the Oregun area of Ikeja on Thursday.
The Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the party, Olushile Akinyemi, disclosed this on Friday during an appearance on Breakfast Central, a programme on News Central Television.
According to Akinyemi, the senatorial candidate was among several party members affected by the violence, which disrupted the gathering and forced participants to run for safety.
The attack reportedly occurred when suspected hoodlums armed with cutlasses, cudgels and stones stormed the venue, destroyed chairs and attacked supporters of the opposition party.
Some NDC members reportedly resisted the attackers by throwing chairs at them, leading to a confrontation at the venue.
Akinyemi also alleged that NDC supporters travelling from Ojo Local Government Area in three vehicles bearing the party’s branding were attacked at Opebi before reaching the town hall meeting.
He said the attackers damaged the vehicles and carted away personal belongings, including mobile phones belonging to the party members.
However, some of the stolen phones were later recovered following the intervention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Ikeja Local Government Area.
Akinyemi explained that the APC chairman arrived at the scene in a branded Sienna bus, approached the affected NDC members to find out what had happened and subsequently helped recover some of the stolen belongings.
He added that within an hour, some of the affected members were contacted and their recovered phones returned to them.
Reacting to the development, the NDC National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, condemned the attack, describing it as unfortunate and unacceptable.
Director accused the ruling APC of promoting violent political activities and attempting to undermine Nigeria’s democracy through what he described as barbaric political tactics.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State chapter of the APC had earlier condemned the attack and rejected allegations linking its members to the incident.
The party’s State Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo, dismissed the allegations as baseless and urged the NDC to provide credible evidence to security agencies instead of making accusations in the media.