Thugs invade Ogun tribunal, beat up PDP chiefs

Ogun State PDP Chairman, Bayo Dayo
Pandemonium broke out on Tuesday at the Ogun State
Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta, as
suspected thugs flogged politicians who had converged on
the court’s premises.
The attackers, who were armed with canes and other
weapons, descended on some notable party chieftains.
Those flogged include supporters of the Peoples Democratic
Party, including a former Chairman of Yewa North Local
Government, Olusoji Eweje, Sesan Orelaja, and a former
women leader of the Labour Party, Mrs. Omolola Soyombo.
The state PDP chairman, Bayo Dayo, and the National
Auditor of the party, Alhaji Wole Adeyanju, were said to
have narrowly escaped being whipped by the hoodlums.
The free-for-all began shortly after the chairman of the
three-man panel, Justice Henry Olusiyi, reserved
judgment in the case, in which the governorship candidate
of the PDP, Prince Gboyega Isiaka, is challenging the
election which returned Senator Ibikunle Amosun of the All
Progressives Congress as the state governor for the second
time.
Lawyers, other party faithful and journalists had to wait
inside the courtroom because the court premises had been
turned into a battlefield. The security operatives were
overwhelmed by the hoodlums until they called for a
reinforcement.
Consequently, more security operatives including men of the
Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police led by
a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bello Makwashi, stormed
the tribunal to rescue the situation which persisted for
more than one hour.
Earlier, counsel for all the parties had adopted their final
written addresses and were allowed to address the court
while respondents also replied on point of law.
The counsel for the Independent National Electoral
Commission, Olusina Sofola (SAN), urged the court to strike
out all grounds of the petition except two, saying the
grounds violated Section 138 of the Electoral Act and were
as such incompetent.
Sofola told the court that the reliefs sought in the
substantive petition were inconsistent and that the only
option for the court “is to throw out the whole petition.”
The counsel for the 2nd respondent, George Oyeniyi, who
also prayed the court to dismiss the evidence of PW9
(Benjamin Ibikunle) for being an interested party, argued
that the petitioners had abandoned their reliefs.
Oyeniyi described the case as hopeless.
The counsel for the 1st respondent, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN),
also said what the petitioners were attempting to do was to
amend the substantive petition through the back door.
The petitioners had requested the court to cancel the
election results in nine local councils and declare Isiaka the
winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship poll or order for
another election in those contentious local councils.
Meanwhile, the Director of Publicity of Gboyega Isiaka
Campaign Organisation, Ifekayode Akinbode, has accused
the APC supporters of masterminding the attack on the PDP
leaders and supporters, describing it as “barbaric and
senseless.”
But the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Sola Lawal,
refuted this claim, stressing that the party “is discipline
and has respect for the rule of law and individual, so it is
not right to accuse it of using thugs to unleash terror on
anyone.”