Thugs suspected to be loyal to the All Progressives Congress launched a deadly attack on some members of the Social Democratic Party during a campaign rally in Idanre, Ondo State.
Members of the SDP said they were attacked with machete and guns, sustaining varying degrees of injury in the process.
Condemning the attack, the SDP in a statement on Tuesday by its chairmanship candidate in Idanre, Bankole Akinselure, disclosed that vehicles and motorcycles belonging to party members were also destroyed in the course of the attack by suspected APC thugs.
Akinselure stated that leaders of APC in Idanre resorted to crude attack on the opposition because the people of Idanre were prepared to vote for the SDP on Saturday.
The leadership of SDP in Ondo State beckoned on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to call the leaders of APC in Idanre to order.
“Also, all the gun-wielding thugs of APC that unleashed attack on innocent citizens should be arrested and prosecuted.
“The idea of arming thugs with guns, charms and machetes for the purpose of inflicting wounds and
disruption of peaceful political meeting of another party is totally condemnable and should not be encouraged by anyone in Ondo State.
“The fact that the leaders of APC in Idanre have resorted to violence even ahead of Saturday’s election is a clear pointer to the belief that the candidate of SDP is poised to record overwhelming victory during Saturday’s local government election.
“We are therefore calling on the governor of Ondo State and indeed all the lovers of democracy to prevail on APC leaders in Idanre not to turn our peaceful town to a battle ground in the name of trying to win an election by hook or crook,” Akinselure said.
He also posited that the violence unleashed on the party’s supporters has further strengthened the electorates to vote massively against the unpopular candidate of APC.
