THERE was palpable tension in Osogbo, Osun State capital on Monday when suspected hoodlums attacked some journalists at a press conference addressed by some members of the State Working Committee (SWC) of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
The secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State council, Mr Bamigbola Boladale was not spared in the ugly incident as he was terribly beaten by the rampaging thugs, who also tore his clothes to shreds.
Trouble was said to have ensued when the thugs unexpectedly invaded GMT Hotels, venue of the press conference, along Ring Road area of Osogbo around 11.15 am to disrupt the programme.
The thugs, who stormed the venue in a 14-passenger bus, wielding different dangerous weapons beat up journalists and some members of the SWC of the APC, forcing the majority of their victims to scale the perimeter fence, with a view to escaping their wrath.
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The hoodlums, numbering about twenty caused serious panic and pandemonium at the venue, as some of the party members who attended the briefing alongside journalists ran in a different direction.
Narrating his ordeal to the TribuneOnline, one of the correspondent national newspapers, who pleaded anonymity said “we were at the programme to give coverage to the news conference by some members of the APC state executives when the thugs came and attacked us. Though some of us managed to escape, I was thoroughly beaten and ordered to do frog jump”.
It would be recalled that 11 members out of 16 of the APC SWC in Osun, led by the party’s legal adviser had before the hoodlums’ invasion passed a vote of no confidence on the state chairman of the ruling party, Prince Gboyega Famoodun and his secretary, Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile over the controversial plan to adopt direct primary system to elect the candidate of the APC ahead September 22 governorshop poll.
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