The campaign office of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar situated in Akure, the capital of Ondo State was in the early hours of today (Wednesday) attacked by hoodlums suspected to be members of the All Progressive Congress, APC in the state.
It was gathered that the hoodlums arrived the campaign office situated beside the Federal College of Agriculture in Ijapo area of the state capital around 2am.
The Personal Assistant to the Ondo State Coordinator of the Atiku Presidential Campaign, Olumide Ogunkua disclosed to DAILY POST that the hoodlums, upon storming the campaign office were chanting, “Next Level” which happened to be slogan of the APC.
Ogunkua maintained that the security guard on duty who is now recuperating at an undisclosed hospital tried to inquire about the mission of the hoodlums but was beaten black and blue and got injured in the process before he was tied up within the premises.
While narrating the incident, he stated, “We got a call from one of our sympathizers that the new billboards, banners and posters in front of our campaign office had been vandalized.
“Upon receiving the call, we arrived at the office and we saw that all the banners and posters of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had been removed while some were defaced.
“Upon entering the premises, we discovered that the security guard was tied up and his two phones were taken away.
“When we inquired from him what really happened, he told us that he heard people destroying the banners and he shouted but the hoodlums scaled through the fence and held him, hostage, before they continued to carry out their dastardly act.
“For us, it indicates the desperation of the ruling party (APC), as according to him (security guard) the hoodlums were shouting the next level when they were destroying the billboards and banners.
“This is unacceptable. We call on the appropriate authorities to put a stop to these unwarranted attacks, if not, it will put a threat to the peaceful conduct of the general election come February 2019.
“But for us, we’re undeterred, we are determined, but their action shows that our presidential candidate (Atiku Abubakar) is giving them headache.
“The presidential campaign council of Ondo State has taken it up, we’ll write the Inspector General of Police, the Director of DSS to formally report this act.
But reacting, the APC Publicity Secretary in the State, Alex Kalejaiye who condemned the attack emphasized that the allegations of Ogunkua was untrue.
Kalejaiye stated that APC government does not discriminate irrespective of political affiliation.
“The allegation is not true because members of our party are well cultured, we’re so confident of our victory come February 2019, so we won’t have any reason whatsoever to attack any party or their facilities, we’ll not do that.
“We’re not in opposition and we’ve done what we think will gladden the heart of the people to continue to enjoy their support, so with that, we’ve no reason to support any agent or group to attack any political party.
“The state government under the APC control the agency that moderates the activities of placing billboards which is the signage agency and it collects revenue. So, why do you think we’ll now sponsor anyone or group to destroy what brings in revenue in the state government’s purse.
“We’ll not do that, we’ll not encourage it. If anybody is pointing accusing finger at the APC, the person is doing it out of either frustration or ignorance.
“Whatever happened, we condemned that act, it’s not civilised, it’s not in the spirit of Ondo State,” the APC spokesperson maintained.
Meanwhile, when DAILY POST contacted the Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer, Femi Joseph, he stated that the incident had not been reported to the police in the state.
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