Suspected thugs reportedly dressed in police uniforms on Friday raided Sutoria Hotel in Lokoja, where Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde was staying in Kogi State ahead of Saturday's governorship election.
Makinde is in the state to support the People's Democratic Party nominee, Musa Wada, who challenges the state's incumbent governor, Yaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress.
An eye witness told one of our correspondents that in the early hours of Friday the masked attackers surrounded the hotel pretending to have knowledge that Ibadan thugs were staying in the hotel.
One of the governor’s aides said the attackers arrived at the hotel dressed in the uniform of the State Security Services Directorate and the police, masked and attempting to surround the hotel when people in the area, who were aware that the governor was there, raised the alarm before police later came to their rescue.
Are we in the war?
Without coercion, people should be free to make their choice. "What awaits the people at the polling unit when thugs would try to threaten a governor in a Nigerian state? If we call them terrorists, who gave them the security outfit uniform?
In a democracy, this is not a good thing." One of our correspondents was trying to talk to the governor on one of his mobile phones but wasn’t fruitful. Upon filing this report, a text message sent to the number had not yet been replied to.
The State police commissioner Hakeem Busari, who confirmed to one of our correspondents the incident on the telephone, said the command had the information and immediately deployed officers in the place to chase the thugs as police officers away.
