The Presidential rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC), held on Monday at the MKO Abiola stadium, Abeokuta, was hurriedly brought to a close by the party due to violent attacks.
The violence was said to have erupted due to actions of some of the aggrieved party supporters at the venue of the rally, who had decamped to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Hoodlums greeted President Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with stones.
Violence erupted as Oshiomhole was invited to the podium for his speech. Reports have it that as he began to speak, persons suspected to be hoodlums started throwing stones at him and one of the stones flew in the direction where the President was sitting.
Buhari was saved by one of his security operatives who took the hit for him.
It was an embarrassing moment for the governor Ibikunle Amosun, who struggled to calm the APM flag carriers.
It took the intervention of the security operatives on the podium to block the items, as the rally was hurriedly ended.
Earlier, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo had to cut short his speech after he was shouted down by the aggrieved APM members when he told the crowd at the venue to ‘vote APC in all the elections”.
Meanwhile, with four days to the poll, the political atmosphere in the state is getting tensed as cases of attacks and electoral violence are sending wrong signals about the poll.
At the weekend, the campaign train of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, came under a fresh attack allegedly by political thugs suspected to be working for a rival governorship candidate.
It was learnt that the campaign train was on its way to Ofada town shortly after a rally in Owode, Obafemi-Owode Local Government, when thugs shot sporadically into the air and hurled stones at Abiodun’s convoy.
The Friday attack was the second this month, as the party’s supporters were attacked earlier in the month, during a faceoff with supporters of APM at Elega, Abeokuta North Local Government, during a ward-to-ward campaign tour.
