No fewer than five supporters of the Accord Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sustained serious wounds when they clashed in Ibadan the Oyo State capital yesterday.
At least, nine vehicles, including commercial buses, were also burnt during the incident.
The incident happened around 6:00 pm at Iyana Church, Iwo Road area ofthe city during an Accord Party campaign. Senator Rashidi Ladoja is the governorship candidate of the party while the incumbent, AdebayoAlao-Akala is the PDP governorship candidate.
Eyewitnesses said that Ladoja’s campaign team was had completed its campaign at Caterpillar Bus Stop, Monatan area before Alao-Akala’s supporters allegedly launched an attack on them while leaving the campaign ground.
They said the PDP supporters launched an attack of gunshots on them, leaving some of them scampering for safety at first. But they later returned the attack, a development that led to a free-for-all between supporters of the two candidates.
The battle, which paralysed commercial activities on the busy road, raged for several hours. Shop owners hurriedly closed their shops while motorists and travellers became stranded for hours. The victims were taken to private hospitals in the city.
The Director-General of the Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Hon. Adeolu Adeleke, said that Alao-Akala’s men attacked their convoy while returning from the campaign ground.
He alleged that they destroyed three of the vehicles on the convoy, adding that they vandalised another vehicle belonging to a major supporter of their party in the area, Mr Temitope Olatoye (aka Sugar).
According to Adeleke, the hoodlums had vandalised Sugar’s campaign office in the area the previous day.
He said: "We were attacked by PDP thugs after our campaign at Caterpillar Bus Stop along Iwo Road. Senator Ladoja got to the campaign ground, did his peaceful campaign and left the place. But to our surprise, these hoodlums attacked us on our way back and vandalised three of our vehicles. They also vandalised Mr .Temitope Olatoye’s vehicle. They had vandalised his office on Thursday. These thugs destroyed five other vehicles belonging to our supporters but we thank God that Senator Ladoja was unhurt."
Hon. Adeleke said they had reported the vandalisation of Olatoye’s office at the police station but that nothing has been done till press time. He decried the seeming inaction of the police, stressing that the hoodlums actually started by vandalising Ladoja’s billboards and tearing his posters.
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