Hoodlums suspected to be political thugs on Monday, threw caution to the wind at the premises of the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta to beat up members of the Peoples Democratic Party with cane.

This happened when the State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta on Monday commenced hearing the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic governorship candidate, Oladipupo Adebutu, against Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Abiodun the winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.

Dissatisfied with the development, Adebutu dragged Abiodun to court to challenge his victory.

The tribunal fixed Monday for the inaugural sitting on the petition filed by Adebutu against Abiodun.

While the sitting commenced within the court, the political thugs stormed the tribunal premises with canes, otherwise known as pankere, in their hands and freely used them on the opposition members.

The thugs who were not come close to the members of the tribunal, were seen attacking their political enemies with canes while policemen and security agents looked away.

The victims were beaten by these thugs and chased them away.

It was observed that, despite that the road that leads to the court was barricaded at both ends by the police, that gesture did not stop the hoodlums from attacking their targets.

The situation became a free-for-all as the political thugs roamed about the premises with canes in their hands while police made no attempt to arrest them or stop them from causing chaos[/b].

[b]A policeman who did not want his name in print said, “There is nothing we can do, we can’t arrest them. Everything about Ogun is always different.”

A PDP member, who was one of those attacked by the thugs, said he lost his phone, money and other items in his possession while being beaten.

As of the time of filing this report, some members of the opposition have fled the court premises to avoid further attacks.

Several attempts to contact the new Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola failed.

Odutola who replaced the immediate-past PPRO of the state command, SP, Abimbola Oyeyemi had yet to officially resume.

Several calls made to her mobile number did not connect as of the time of filing this report.