It was a scene beset by bedlam at Isabo, Abeokuta where the Ogun State Election Petitions Tribunal sat as suspected thugs descended on politicians who had converged on the court’s premises.

The suspected hoodlums, who were armed with canes and other weapons, descended on some notable party chieftains.

Those flogged include supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, including a former Chairman of Yewa North Local Government, Olusoji Eweje, Sesan Orelaja, and a former women leader of the Labour Party, Mrs. Omolola Soyombo.

The state PDP chairman, Bayo Dayo, and the National Auditor of the party, Alhaji Wole Adeyanju, were said to have narrowly escaped being whipped by the hoodlums.

The free-for-all began shortly after the chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Henry Olusiyi, reserved judgment in the case, in which the governorship candidate of the PDP, Prince Gboyega Isiaka, is challenging the election which returned Senator Ibikunle Amosun of the All Progressives Congress as the state governor for the second time.

Lawyers, other party faithful and journalists had to wait inside the courtroom because the court premises had been turned into a battlefield. The security operatives were overwhelmed by the hoodlums until they called for a reinforcement.

Consequently, more security operatives including men of the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bello Makwashi, stormed the tribunal to rescue the situation which persisted for more than one hour.

Meanwhile, the Director of Publicity of Gboyega Isiaka Campaign Organisation, Ifekayode Akinbode, has accused the APC supporters of masterminding the attack on the PDP leaders and supporters, describing it as “barbaric and senseless.”

But the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Sola Lawal, refuted this claim, stressing that the party “is discipline and has respect for the rule of law and individual, so it is not right to accuse it of using thugs to unleash terror on anyone.”