IT was a free for all Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital as supporters of the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) accompanied by members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) clashed with Accord Party (AP) members, leaving several persons injured.
The fracas not only disrupted the rally by the AP to welcome defectors into its fold, chairs and canopies already mounted for the occasion at Olomi area of the city were burnt by the irate party supporters.
Although the AP leadership accused the rival ACN of sponsoring the crisis, the state Publicity Secretary of ACN, Dauda Kolawole, denied the involvement of his party in the fracas.
A lawmaker representing Oluyole Federal Constituency under the AP, Ibrahim Olaifa, who witnessed the incident alleged that the crisis was caused by the ACN in conjunction with the NURTW members.
Olaifa accused the group of using broken bottles, cutlasses and guns to attack his party members during which all the materials assembled for the programme such as chairs, canopies, podium and other things were either burnt to ashes or vandalised.
The National Leader of the party and the former governor of the state, Rashidi Ladoja, who later addressed the defectors from both ACN and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) as well as Accord Party supporters from across the state described the incident as unfortunate.
Ladoja said: "He (probably referring to Governor Ajimobi) is the chief security officer of the state. Is this what they want to do? Can he prevent us from doing what we want to do? Is this not worse than the politics of Adedibu's era? After Tokyo, it was Eleweomo. Have they been able to suppress us?
"To demonstrate the commitment of our members to our ideals and cause, all our members sacked in the ACN-led government are now fully back in the party, this is rare, but, that is to show you that we know what we stand for.
"They said we shouldn't come, but, here we are. We are not afraid of anybody, it is they who are afraid. We have been to Oyo, Ogbomoso and Oke-Ogun areas of the state and whoever says we are not to be reckoned with in the state is sick.
"If members of a ruling party are defecting to our party that is not in government, what that means is that we are the government in waiting. We have been there before, we know them, those prodding the party in power into violence only stay with government for three years," Ladoja said.
The former governor commended the security agencies for rising to the occasion and securing the venue for his party to use, stressing that they all did wonderfully well as thorough-bred professionals.
"I salute all of them for their spirit of patriotism. They made everybody to realise that government is not for anybody but for everybody. The state belongs to all of us where we should be able to do whatever we like under the law," he added.
But the ACN spokesman exonerated members of his party from the fracas, saying they are peace loving people and have no business with the AP.
Kolawole asked the AP to look elsewhere in search of perpetrators of the crime rather than point accusing fingers at its members.
The Guardian