Men suspected to be political thugs yesterday stormed the Kwara State Government House to disperse women protesting peacefully over the spate of kidnappings in Ifelodun Local Council of the state.
The women, armed with placards, had arrived at the seat of power on Ahmadu Bello Way, Ilorin, to plead with the governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, to do more to save the Oke-Ode community from the clutches of bandits who, according to them, have turned the area into a desolate place.
A viral video of the incident showed more than 30 men, armed with horse whips, canes, rubber, wire and other weapons, suddenly alighting from an unmarked vehicle and unleashing beatings that sent some of the women protesters reeling into the gutters.
On arrival, the thugs were seen forcefully collecting the women’s placards and assaulting them with apparent determination.It was gathered that while the attack was ongoing, the governor was attending the passing-out parade of the state’s forest guards.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has condemned what it described as “the brutal, inhumane, and utterly disgraceful” assault unleashed on helpless women and children at the peaceful protest.
“These women—mostly aged mothers, wives of kidnapped victims, and their children from Oke Ode, Agbeku, Babanla, Adanla and other communities in Ifelodun Local Council—came to Kwara State Government House as a last resort.
They came crying, pleading, and begging the government to intervene in securing the release of their loved ones who have been held hostage by bandits for weeks, with outrageous ransom demands running into tens of millions of naira.
“The Kwara PDP considers videos circulating in the public space, which show these women lamenting in Yoruba how their husbands were kidnapped over a month ago, how entire communities have been deserted, and how families have sold all they own and exhausted all options.”
The party’s state publicity secretary, Olusegun Olusola Adewara, lamented that “instead of compassion, reassurance, or even basic engagement, these traumatised citizens were met with violence.
“It is unacceptable that thugs mercilessly descended on these peaceful protesters with canes and other weapons, beating, stripping, and forcefully dispersing them in full public view.”
The party also charged the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to immediately identify, investigate and prosecute all police officers who supervised or allowed the assault to take place, stressing that “justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done”.
“We also demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of all government-linked thugs who carried out this attack on peaceful protesters. No society that claims to be civilised should tolerate such lawlessness under the guise of governance.
“Furthermore, the Kwara PDP calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, relevant national authorities and international human rights institutions to urgently look into this disturbing incident and the broader failure of the AbdulRahman-led Kwara State Government to protect its citizens from banditry, kidnapping and state-sponsored intimidation,” it concluded.
