The Campaign trail of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Candidate was attacked in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State on Sunday.
The attack reportedly occurred in the evening while members of the campaign team led by the governorship candidate, Dr. Abdulazeez Adediran popularly known as Jandor, were returning from visitation to Ikoga Junction in Badagry Local Government area.
Jandor has been in the local government since Saturday to solicit for support ahead of next year’s election.
The attack led to injuries of several members of Jandor’s entourage including journalists with one of them reportedly in critical condition.
Lagos State PDP Publicity Secretary and Chairman, Media and Publicity Team for JandorFunke 2023 Campaign Council, Hon. Hakeem Amode, confirmed the attack.
He said those injured were being treated at an undisclosed hospital, adding that the thugs that attacked the campaign trail were sponsored by the ruling party.
An eyewitness who spoke with our correspondent described it as “an organised attack”, saying the thugs overwhelmed the security operatives in the entourage.
Several vehicles in the convoy had their glasses shattered as the thugs shot at the convoy and threw stones and other dangerous objects.
One journalist fainted after he was hit by a big stone thrown at one of the buses conveying journalists.
Another source said, “It was clearly an orchestrated attack targeted at the PDP Governorship candidate who escaped by whiskers. But others were not so lucky.”
The PDP Publicity Secretary said, “You will recall that our party raised concern over the threat to use APC sponsored thugs to attack the campaign programs of our Gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran-JANDOR recently and we would like to state categorically that this will not deter the determination of our candidate to campaign for the next election and win the election come March 29, 2023.
“We would like to call on the Commissioner of Police of Lagos state and the Area Commander of Police in the Badagry division to do everything possible to fish out those behind the attack and neccesary disciplinary actions taken against them to forestall such occurrences in the future and to instill confidence in our members that they will be protected during this campaign period.
“We would like to also strongly warn those that are hell bent on causing trouble or planning to disrupt the campaign and elections that we would not fold our arms and watch as we will resist all forms of intimidation.”
The APC spokesman, Mr. Seye Oladejo, has not responded to a request for comment as of the time of filing this report.