Nine Shot As Hoodlums Defy Curfew In Ondo
No fewer than nine persons have been reportedly shot as security agencies intensified efforts to enforce the riot by hoodlums in the streets of Akure and environs.
The hoodlums mounted barricades in several parts of Akure.
Witnesses said the nine persons were shot by security agents who were moving round the town to disperse the protesters.
It was gathered that the injured persons were rushed to various hospitals within the area for medical attention but no death was recorded.
The witnesses said the shootings occurred between Ilesha garage and Cathedral junction.
It was learnt that the hoodlums who were irked by the shooting marched on the Ondo Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress and torched the building after looting items such as bags of rice, laptops, plasma TV, chairs, tables amongst others.
Attempts by some hoodlums to set the Yaba police station in Ondo town on fire was resisted by policemen of the police command which made the hoodlums set a a new generation bank and set two vehicles ablaze.
Emissaries sent by traditional ruler of the town, Osamawe of Ondo, Oba Victor Adesimbo, were attacked by the hoodlums and their two cars were razed.
Witnesses said two women who joined the in the riot were felled by bullets but could not be confirmed whether they were dead or alive.
Ondo Police spokesman, ASP Tee-Leo Ikoro, said he was yet to be briefed.
Meanwhile, the Ondo chapter of the APC has accused the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party of sponsoring attacks on resident of its Chairman, Engr. Ade Adetimehin and the party secretariat.
It said it was intervention of a team of policemen from Elerinla Police station that saved the party chieftain and his family.
The Ondo APC stated that the inability to wreck havoc on its Chairman’s house made ‘the thugs, chanting “Power to the People” headed straight to the party SPate secretariat, and set it ablaze.’
Spokesman for the Ondo APC, Alex Kalejaiye, said the party was stunned that a legitimate protest by youths could be employed to achieve political vendetta by setting the party’s secretariat on fire.
“It is sad to note that the People’s Democratic Party, could go this far to perpetuate what it could not achieve during the just concluded gubernatorial election in Ondo State.
“The APC has it on good authority that the PDP has also perfected plans to target leaders of the APC that are either of Akure origin, or based in the capital city for attacks in the next couple of days.
“The fact that the APC always prefer to err on the side of caution should not be mistaken for cowardice. The party has the followers and capability to contain such excesses from any aggressive party.
“We therefore call on security agencies to wade in, and stop this senseless cruelty that is being unleashed by a political group. Members of the public, and indeed, APC leaders deserve protection. This is the only way to avert self-help.
“The APC identifies with sincere and genuine agitation for a better Nigeria, but quick to add that what is happening in Akure is no longer a protest to end SARS, but a political aggression, resulting from electoral defeat.”
But the Ondo PDP said it was uncharitable for the leadership of APC to accuse it for the activities of thugs who set the APC Secretariat on fire in Akure.
Spokesman for the Ondo PDP, Kennedy Peretei, in a statement said, “How on earth can anyone attribute such dastardly acts to PDP, a party that presided over the affairs of Nigeria for sixteen unbroken years. Years we all remember now with nolstagia. Years of peace, prosperity and abundance. We now live in fear, anxiety, uncertainty and total hopelessness. Nobody should draw the PDP into how the APC has steadily led us to where we are now as a nation.
“The PDP wishes to advise President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency, arrest the drift, violence and gloom that have enveloped our nation instead of looking for who to blame.”
