Thugs and some uniformed uniform on Monday attacked the Imo State party secretariat of the Labour party in Owerri
The attack on the state secretariat is the third in a year.
One person was injured and is being hospitalized after he was beaten up by the thugs, a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretart, Obiora Ifoh, claimed.
An eye witness said the attackers,beat up some party members who were present at the state secretariat and issued a threat to the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Athan Achonu.
Reacting to the attack in a statement, the National Publicity Secretary, Ifoh, said the attack was politically motivated.
According to him, the attackers were sponsored and sent to to destroy billboards of the party’s presidential and governorship candidates.
He recalled that the State Chairman, Barrister Callistus Ihejiagwa, had earlier on Monday, August 28, sent a Save Our Soul, SOS, to the public, notifying them to come to the aid of the party, which was at that time, at the mercy of over one hundred thugs, accompanied by some men in uniform.
Part of the statement reads “ In a voice mail sent to our party headquarters later, the state chairman of the party said, “We have been invaded by the thugs and policemen under the directives of Hope Uzodinma, they have pulled down all our flags, pulled down the banners of Peter Obi, pulled down the banners of our governorship candidate, seized People’s phone, beat people up, and committed all manners of atrocities just now in our office.”
According to the statement, when the party chairman confronted them, they said they were acting on the directives and instruction of the Imo State government to pull down Peter Obi and Senator Athan Achonu’s billboards, “but particulary that of Obi”
“They were instructed to target Obi’s billboard everywhere in the city. One of the assaulted members of the party is presently hospitalized after the brutality meted at us. We are calling on the whole world to hear our predicament and come to our aid. The government is now hounding every opposition element in the state” the statement concluded.