Political tensions in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have intensified after Mr. Otito Atikase, a commissioner on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), alleged that those involved in a violent attack on the party’s secretariat openly admitted being paid to target him.
The development comes amid conflicting narratives over Tuesday’s chaos at the APC state secretariat in Akure, where party leaders were reportedly assaulted during a pre-congress stakeholders’
Atikase, an APC chieftain and NDDC board member, alleged that the attackers stormed the meeting with a clear mission to eliminate him. According to him, the assailants did not conceal their intentions.
“Their target is to eliminate me. They told me they have been paid to assassinate me,” Atikase said, describing the attack as premeditated and politically motivated.
He directly accused Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa of being behind the violence, warning that the governor should be held responsible if anything happens to him.
“The people of Ondo State, if anything happens to me, hold Lucky Aiyedatiwa responsible. He is planning to assassinate me. His thugs injured so many people at the APC Secretariat today,” he wrote in a series of posts on his reinstated social media account.
Atikase further alleged that shortly after he publicly raised concerns about threats to his life, his social media account was reported and temporarily suspended.
“They reported my account, and it was suspended after I raised a serious issue concerning my life yesterday. I am back,” he stated.
Atikase told SaharaReporters on Wednesday that the violence erupted before the arrival of the Congress Committee from Abuja. The meeting was reportedly held to discuss preparations for the ward congress across the state’s 203 wards.
According to his account, more than 100 armed men allegedly invaded the secretariat wielding cutlasses, clubs and other weapons. The attackers were said to have acted in a coordinated manner, overpowering party officials and members.
He alleged that the thugs declared allegiance to the governor and were led by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Ondo State chairman, who was allegedly identifying whom to attack and whom to spare.
He said several prominent party leaders were beaten during the attack, including the APC State Chairman, Mr Ade Adetimehin; former Commissioner for Sports, Mr Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye; and Atikase himself
Atikase further alleged that the attackers insisted they were specifically paid to eliminate him, heightening fears of a deepening internal crisis within the APC in the state.
The embattled NDDC commissioner questioned why the governor allegedly held a separate meeting at the same secretariat after the incident and failed to visit those injured.
“How can the governor hold a meeting in the same location after the incident and refuse to visit the victims in the hospital?” he asked.
He also maintained that the governor was duly informed of the meeting beforehand.
“All they wanted was to force us out of the Secretariat, including the party chairman in the state, so that they could hold the meeting with the committee from Abuja, which they eventually did,” he alleged.
“We are not violent like this in Ondo State. We are peaceful people, but the head of the governor’s protocol, who is from Ogun State, organised the whole incident and introduced violence into our politics,” he added.
However, the Ondo State Government has firmly denied the allegations, dismissing claims that Governor Aiyedatiwa sponsored thugs to disrupt the meeting.
In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Idowu Ajanaku, the government described the accusations as malicious, unfounded and a calculated attempt to smear the governor’s administration.
The statement insisted that the governor was neither aware of nor connected to the meeting in question and could not have sanctioned any act of thuggery.
According to the government, Aiyedatiwa’s leadership has been anchored on civility, inclusiveness and democratic principles, with zero tolerance for violence and political intimidation.
The government further stated that the APC in Ondo remains a disciplined and people-oriented platform, noting that several political meetings had been conducted peacefully across the state without incident.
It urged members of the public to disregard what it termed baseless allegations and warned against the spread of misinformation capable of destabilising the political atmosphere in the state.
