Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital,
further descended into chaos Friday morning with rampaging thugs, believed to
be loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and the National Union of Road
Transport Workers [NURTW] charging around the city and unleashing violence on
residents and property.
Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital,
further descended into chaos Friday morning with rampaging thugs, believed to
be loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and the National Union of Road
Transport Workers [NURTW] charging around the city and unleashing violence on
residents and property. Ayodele
Fayose, Buruji Kashamu and PDP's Ondo state guber candidate, Oke Sahara
Reporters Media
Already, the campaign office of
Governor Kayode Fayemi and the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress,
APC, located at the Ajilosun area of the city, have been torched.
Some residents were beaten up and
vehicles burnt, witnesses said.
The spokesperson for the Ekiti State
command of the police, Olu Babayemi, confirmed the incident, saying the command
had poured officers on the streets to contain the situation.
“There was a protest in town but the
police have moved in,” Mr. Babayemi said.”For now, we are trying to restore
normalcy and ensure lives and property are secured.”
Mr. Babayemi confirmed that the APC
secretariat and Mr. Fayemi’s campaign office had been vandalised and torched.
The immediate cause of the violent
protest is unclear, but the city has been on the edge since Monday when thugs
believed to be sympathetic to the PDP stormed a court and attacked the judge,
O. Ogunyemi, who was hearing a case concerning the eligibility of
Governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose, for the recent governorship election in the
state.
The court sitting was disrupted,
litigants were beaten while the judge was ferried to safety by police after he
was threatened by the militants, the state chief judge explained on Thursday.
On Thursday, another set of
political thugs backing Mr. Fayose descended on another court, attacking a
judge and other staff.
The assailants attacked Justice John
Adeyeye, beating him up and ripping his clothes for being allegedly rude to Mr.
Fayose.
The pandemonium that ensued scuttled
the Ekiti State Governorship Election petition Tribunal sitting billed for the
day at the High court, Ado-Ekiti, as judicial workers abandoned their duty post
and ran for safety, witnesses and the state judiciary authority said.
In response to the attacks, the
state Chief Judge, A. Daramola, ordered all state courts to remain closed until
adequate security measures are in place, according to a statement by Chief
Registrar Obafemi Fasanmi.
By Thursday night, a former chairman
of the Ekiti state chapter of the NURTW and a core loyalist of Mr. Fayose,
Omolafe Aderiye, was reportedly killed.
Mr. Aderiye is believed to have led
the thugs who assaulted the judges on Monday and Thursday.
The circumstances of his death
remain unclear.
The police said they would not
comment on that yet as their immediate priority is restoring calm and order to
the Ekiti state capital.
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