Thugs invade tribunal and flog former governorship aspirant, others as security agents watch
Some political thugs have flogged a former Governorship aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Segun Showunmi, and others as the Election Petition Tribunal began its sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The Tribunal on Monday, June 5, 2023, commenced hearing of the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, against Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The road leading to the venue, Magistrates’ Court, Isabo, was condoned off by a combined team of security operatives.It was gathered that both the APC and the PDP mobilised their members to be at the tribunal for solidarity.
However, some thugs numbering over 100 stormed the premises with sticks, and other harmful objects to allegedly scare opposition party members.
This later lead to minor chaos where Segun Showunmi, some political party supporters, journalists, and others were beaten.The security agents present were accused of doing nothing while the incident lasted. A security agent said, “There is nothing we can do, we can’t arrest them. Everything about Ogun is always different.”
However, peace was restored at the premises with the intervention of fully armed security operatives, comprising the police, DSS, and Civil Defense.
The Ogun state governorship tribunal sitting is expected to determine among other things the true winner of the March 18 governorship election, of which the incumbent Dapo Abiodun was declared winner but is being challenged by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ladi Adebutu.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced that Abiodun polled 276,298 to defeat his closest rivals Ladi Adebutu of the PDP who scored 262,383 as well as Biyi Otegbeye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) who got 94,754 votes.
Thereafter, Adebutu asked the tribunal to direct INEC to conduct fresh election in 99 polling units in 41 wards and 16 of the 20 local government areas of the state.
He also alleged that elections were either not held or cancelled in some polling units due to disruption of the exercise and over-voting.
