NEWS
Lagos Political Violence: NDC Senatorial Candidate, Adeola Adebanjo, Hospitalised After Suffering Broken Leg in Attack on Party Members
Lagos Political Violence: NDC Senatorial Candidate, Adeola Adebanjo, Hospitalised After Suffering Broken Leg in Attack on Party Members
The Lagos East Senatorial candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Adeola Adebanjo, has been hospitalised after sustaining a broken leg during a violent attack on members of the party in Lagos State.
Adebanjo reportedly suffered the injury when an iron rod pierced his leg while he was attempting to escape from suspected political thugs who invaded an NDC gathering in the state.
The incident, which has heightened concerns over political violence and the safety of party members ahead of the 2027 general elections, occurred on Thursday during the party’s town hall meeting in Oregun, Ikeja.
Channel
The Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the NDC, Olushile Akinyemi, confirmed the development on Friday while speaking on Breakfast Central, a programme on News Central Television.
According to Akinyemi, the attack left several party members traumatised, with the senatorial candidate among those who sustained injuries in the ensuing chaos.
“I should put it on record that our senatorial candidate for Lagos East, Adeola, had his leg broken during the mayhem. He is currently in hospital as I speak,” Akinyemi said.
Reports indicate that the suspected attackers, armed with cutlasses, cudgels and stones, stormed the venue, disrupted proceedings, scattered chairs and forced participants to run for safety.
The invasion reportedly triggered a confrontation between the suspected hoodlums and some NDC supporters, who attempted to resist the attackers by throwing chairs at them.
Providing further details, Akinyemi disclosed that the violence was not restricted to the town hall venue, alleging that party supporters travelling from Ojo Local Government Area in three vehicles branded with the party’s insignia were also attacked around Opebi before reaching the meeting.
He alleged that the attackers vandalised the vehicles and carted away personal belongings belonging to the party members, including their mobile phones.
However, in a development that added another dimension to the incident, Akinyemi revealed that some of the stolen phones were recovered following the intervention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Ikeja Local Government Area.
According to him, the APC chairman arrived at the scene in a branded Sienna bus, made enquiries about what had happened and subsequently facilitated the recovery of the stolen devices, which were returned to their owners less than an hour later.
“But the funny thing was that we recovered the phones. The APC chairman in Ikeja Local Government recovered those phones for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NDC National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, condemned the attack, describing it as unfortunate and unwarranted while accusing the ruling APC of engaging in desperate political tactics capable of undermining Nigeria’s democracy.
“The attacks perpetrated against our members in Lagos State are unfortunate and unwarranted. The hard-earned, ruinous APC is planning to destroy our hard-earned democracy by their desperation and demonic politics of barbarism,” he told Saturday Punch.
However, the Lagos State chapter of the APC has rejected allegations linking the party to the violence, insisting that it had no involvement in the attack.
The party had earlier condemned the incident on Thursday, with its Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo, describing the allegations against the APC as baseless.
Oladejo challenged the NDC to provide credible evidence to security agencies rather than make allegations and insinuations against the ruling party.
The incident has sparked fresh concerns over political intolerance and the safety of political participants, particularly as political activities gradually intensify ahead of the 2027 general elections.
