Some gun-wielding hoodlums on Thursday evening, attacked Oranmiyan House, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola’s campaign office located in Osogbo, capital of Osun State.
Eyewitnesses said the suspected political thugs stormed the building and started shooting directly into it. The gunmen also shattered the outer glass decor of the building with bullets.
Our correspondent who visited the four-storey building about 20 minutes after the attack, saw fire fighters making efforts to put out the fire said to have been thrown into a transformer located at the front of the building by the hoodlums.
The gunmen were said to have soaked bread inside a substance suspected to be petrol and threw them into the building premises in a bid to set it ablaze. The canopies used for the meeting were also torched.
The incident was said to have happened around 5:30 pm after the members of the ruling All Progressives Congress loyal to Aregbesola had ended their weekly meeting.
Officers from the Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps were at the building to inspect it.
In an interview with our correspondent at the building premises, Sodiq Olayide, the Director-General of Oranmiyan Worldwide, explained that the hoodlums attempted to set the building on fire and that one of the APC members in the Aregbesola’s faction, Sunday Babatunde Oriowo was shot on the shoulder.
Olayide said: “I was at the office before I started hearing gunshots. I took cover while they were firing gunshots, non-stop for almost ten minutes. I called my people that are in the building not to go out. Immediately after the gunshots stopped, I came out and I found that these glass have been destroyed. I saw some places burning too. I moved closer to the fire and I saw that it was bread, apparently soaked in substances that can ignite. They shot at the transformer but we thank God there was no electricity there because if there was, it would have gone up in flames and their intention is to burn this place down.
“I reported at Oke Baale Police Division and their DPO visited the building. I am not suspecting anybody but the petitions we have written six different petitions to the Osun State Commisoner of Police have not been attended to. We (Salinsile led Osun APC faction) were attacked in Ife North and East Local Government, we were attacked in November, last year. We have mentioned names and up till now, no single arrest has been made and what that simply means is that the Commissioner of Police is compromised,” he said.
The Public Relations Officer of NSCDC, Olabisi Atanda, who was at the building for inspection said, “We have seen the building and the damaged parts. We will investigate the matter.”
Some security operatives arrested a suspected thug for allegedly causing nuisance in the premises.
