Get Guardian on GoogleThe National Campaign Council Coordinator of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Lagos State, Ife Salako, has accused suspected APC-linked thugs of attacking his party’s town hall meeting, warning that Nigerians are becoming increasingly intolerant of political violence.
Salako made the allegation on Friday while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, where he condemned the disruption of the meeting and called on the ruling party to address the activities of suspected political thugs within its ranks.
He said the growing incidents of political intimidation and lawlessness were unacceptable, adding that Nigerians were becoming tired of what he described as the failure to respect democratic principles.
“It is getting to a point where everybody in this nation is sick and tired of the illegality,” he said.
The NDC chieftain alleged that some of the hoodlums who invaded the party’s town hall meeting openly declared their support for President Bola Tinubu, claiming that Lagos belonged to the President and warning opposition members against holding political gatherings in the state.
“To put it on record, the hoodlums who came there yesterday, some of them were calling the names of the president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying Lagos belongs to Tinubu. You cannot hold anything here,” Salako said.
He urged the APC leadership to go beyond issuing public statements condemning political violence and engage its grassroots structures, particularly local government chairmen and ward leaders, to discourage their supporters from engaging in political thuggery.
According to him, addressing the problem at the grassroots level would help curb the activities of individuals allegedly being used to intimidate opposition parties and disrupt their political activities.
“So if they want to really, really stop this menace, they go back to their local government chairman, they go back to their ward leaders, they go back to their local government leaders in their structure, and tell them to tell their children and their boys, you know, to desist from this irresponsible act of political thuggery,” he said.
Salako also recalled previous attacks allegedly carried out against members of the NDC, citing incidents during a political gathering in Alimosho on September 6, 2025, and another attack in February this year.
He further alleged that security operatives protected some of the suspected attackers during the earlier incident, raising concerns about the response of security agencies to political violence.
“And at that time, they were even being protected by some security agencies. Same thugs from the APC,” he said.
The NDC coordinator appealed to the APC-led government to take concrete steps to discourage political violence and ensure that opposition parties could freely organise meetings and conduct political activities without intimidation.
He warned that Nigerians would no longer tolerate the use of violence to suppress political opposition, stressing that such actions were inconsistent with the kind of democratic society citizens wanted.
“I am appealing to the APC government and the party to please talk to their boys. We’re getting to the point where Nigerians are not going to continue to allow them to have a few days of thuggery, and this is not the kind of country or state that we want to run,” he said.
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Council has condemned attacks on political gatherings across the country, including the disruption of the NDC town hall meeting in Lagos.
The campaign council called on security agencies to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible for the attacks, emphasising the need to protect political activities and prevent further incidents of violence.
