The Ogun state governorship tribunal is expected to determine among other things, the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
Suspected thugs numbering over 100 on Monday invaded the governorship election petition tribunal sitting at the Magistrate Court in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
According to an eyewitness account, the thugs who were armed with sticks and other harmful objects besieged the tribunal to allegedly stop opposition political party members from accessing the court premises.
Politics Nigeria reports that journalists and other people who were at the tribunal were almost beaten up but for the timely intervention of a known party stalwart who informed the thugs of their identity.
It was gathered that as of 7a.m, there was already a heavy presence of security personnel at the court but the presence of the security agents did not deter the thugs as they had a free day beating up perceived opponents.
The Ogun state governorship tribunal is expected to determine among other things, the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ladi Adebutu had rejected the victory of incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun in the election, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
INEC had announced Governor Abiodun as the winner of the election after polling a total of 276,298 votes to defeat his closest challengers, Adebutu of the PDP who had a total of 262,383 votes and Biyi Otegbeye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) who got a total of 94,754 votes.
Challenging Governor Abiodun's victory, Adebutu asked the tribunal to direct INEC to conduct fresh elections in 99 polling units in 41 wards and 16 of the 20 local government areas of the state.
The PDP candidate further alleged that the election was either not held or cancelled in some polling units due to violence, disruption of the exercise and over-voting.