EKITI: APC and PDP Fight over Billboard

Supporters of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti clashed on Monday in Ado-Ekiti over alleged failed plan to destroy an electronic bill board. The bill board, erected near the Ekiti State Government House in Fajuyi Memorial Park, was said to have been attacked by thugs loyal to the PDP’s governorship candidate, Mr. Ayo Fayose. A Hilux patrol vehicle belonging to the Peace Corps was vandalised by the thugs. Security men quickly arrived at the scene to bring the situation under control but not without resistance from some thugs loyal to the APC. An eyewitness said a man identified as a member of the PDP was abducted in the presence of the security men to an unknown location. The eyewitness said, “The man was on a motorcycle when he was ‘arrested’ by the thugs. He kept shouting that he was just returning to Ado-Ekiti to pay his child’s school fees but the thugs did not listen to him. He begged them to spare his life but that didn’t make them to change their mind. “The only reason they arrested him was because one of the APC boys said he sighted him at Spotless Hotel belonging to Ayo Fayose; they did not even care to verify the claim by the thug.” The fight came two days after supporters of Labour Party and the APC clashed in Ikere-Ekiti when the governorship candidate of the LP, Opeyemi Bamidele, and Ondo Governor, Olusegun Mimiko held a campaign rally. The Monday’s clash took place at the time the state’s chairman of the APC, Mr. Jide Awe, was addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti where he accused the police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps of complicity in the wave of attacks fast spreading in Ekiti. He cited the attack on Commissioner of Tourism, Mrs. Ronke Okusanya, by PDP thugs at a police station in Efon-Alaye as an example of police complicity. Absolving the police of partisanship, the Ekiti Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, described the statement by the APC as very unfortunate. “They are only trying to make the police the scapegoat and we will not tolerate that,” he said. Source: THE PUNCH