The Lagos State Police Command on Thursday arrested a suspected thug who alongside others at large attacked members of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) during a town hall meeting with the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. 

A video shared by News Central showed the brutalised suspect with his hands and legs tied in a police patrol vehicle leaving the event venue.

The lout, before he was taken away by the police, told journalists that he was not at the venue to attack the participants but to beg for money.

The suspect who identified himself only as Ibrahim said in Yoruba, “Wherever I see big personalities..I didn’t do anything. I came to beg for money.”

Also denying that he was recruited to attack participants at the event, the suspect said, “I carried cutlasses? Who said that? If I did that, let God judge.”

The party members however countered his claims, alleging that he, alongside his fellow thugs who brandished weapons such as cutlasses, stones, bottles, and sticks,  damaged vehicles and fired gunshots to scare them before he was overpowered.

The meeting was said to have been peaceful with party supporters dancing as they awaited Mr Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The Peoples Gazette learnt that the armed hoodlums invaded the venue by 11:00 a.m., and the participants initially fled.

It was further gathered that as the thugs tried to enter the event hall, the NDC members resisted and prevented them from entering, before overpowering and disarming one of them, who they injured and exposed his private parts before others ran away.

An official of the state police spokesperson, Abimbola Adebisi, told The Gazette that officers were still at the scene, adding that they had yet to arrive to submit a report regarding the incident.

The command said, “Our officers that will give us information about the incident are still on the field trying to calm everything over there. When they arrive and give us the information, we will update the media.”