Hoodlums on Thursday attacked the campaign convoy of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr Jimi Agbaje, at Iba in the Ojo area of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the convoy had just left the palace of the Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni, when it came under a ferocious attack.
The PDP governorship hopeful had gone to the monarch to inform him of his plan to hold his campaign rally in the area later in the day before the incident.
As the convoy was driving out, hoodlums, numbering about 40, chased and threw stones at Agbaje’s vehicles.
Some of the hoodlums, clutching daggers and machetes, rode on motorcycles to keep pace with the speed of the convoy, throwing pebbles continually at the convoy.
The rear windscreen of a bus conveying some party members was shattered.
Some occupants of the bus sustained minor injuries caused by the shattered glass.
The hoodlums continued to advance towards the convoy for further attacks, before security men in the convoy engaged them, firing tear gas canisters at them.
They later beat a hurried retreat when the convoy managed to escape.
However, Agbaje and the people in other vehicles did not sustain injuries.
However, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the attack but was quick to add that those involved in the disturbance were not hoodlums but Agbaje’s supporters.
He said, “I want to confirm that Mr Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party came for a political rally today (Thursday) at the Ojo axis of Lagos State and he had a very peaceful campaign devoid of violence.
“However, at the end of the campaign, some of the supporters of the party who came for the rally gathered around his vehicle hoping to receive some patronage.
“Unknown to them that the PDP candidate was not in the coaster bus, they besieged the bus with the hope of getting some money from him (Agbaje). In the process, one of them mistakenly broke the side mirror of the vehicle but with the massive police presence in the area, they were guided out of the venue without any molestation or violence.”
Oti, however, advised politicians and their supporters to embrace peace during their campaigns.
Speaking earlier at the Oniba’s palace, Agbaje said he did not believe that politics should be a do-or-die affair.
The governorship hopeful said that he had always been an advocate of peaceful politics because he believed that power should not be sought through violence.
He said it was in demonstration of that belief that he came down from his vehicle to greet some APC members when he sighted them on his way to the palace.
Oseni said that he was glad to receive Agbaje and his supporters to his palace, noting that as a traditional ruler, he was father to all and was expected to be politically neutral.
The monarch said that it was in that light that he would always welcome everybody to his palace, irrespective of their political affiliations.
He warned against do-or-die politics, because according to him, it threatens peace and democracy.
