Chief Segun Oni, the Social Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Ekiti State for 2022, alleged on Thursday that hoodlums from Efon Alaaye, in the state’s Efon Council Area, attacked him and his supporters.
According to the PUNCH, Oni and his crew were in the region for a consultative meeting on Wednesday evening when they were attacked by suspected political thugs.
The thugs opened fire irregularly and used cutlasses and sticks on supporters of the SDP who were ready to meet Oni, who apparently narrowly escaped the onslaught.
Oni, a former governor running for re-election in Ekiti, claimed during a meeting in Lagos on Thursday that he had successfully held meetings in nine local governments in the state, but that the thugs disrupted the 10th consultative meeting.
“They attacked us, they wouldn’t even let us hold the town hall meeting that we came for, and those who attacked us are known hoodlums who live in the town,” he claimed.
“We weren’t there yet; my supporters and I were walking to the venue together, and we were halfway there when they began attacking, shooting, and throwing bottles at us in the middle of the day on the street.”
“So, we retreated because we realized that the best the cops could do in such a situation was shoot into the air, and the thugs know cops don’t do much more than that.”
“That is what emboldened them, and that is why it has gotten to the point where cops are being killed or injured by thugs who don’t fear cops because they know they will merely shoot into the air.”
We put our defenses in the hands of cops who will only shoot into the air; it’s annoying, and I hope it doesn’t lead to chaos one day. I believe the police should study that model in depth in order to determine the safest posture for them to take in such situations.”
Oni alleged that when he ran for governor of Ekiti State in 2007, masked political thugs burned ballot boxes and disrupted polls with machetes and weapons, and that there was no result from Efon.
“The violence then, I can confidently say, was the birth of a political party, and typically, they couldn’t do enough to win,” he continued. In 2007, I was still victorious. It is people who confer popularity; thank God, it is not something that any instructor or master will teach.”
Source: THE PUNCH
