The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said he has been a threat to the government since he was 20 years old, following an alleged attack on him in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Friday.
Speaking on the Friday edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, Sowore said the attack was part of a deliberate attempt to silence dissenting voices ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He narrated that about 20 armed thugs attacked him in broad daylight at a restaurant in the Dalimore area of Ado-Ekiti, where he had gone to meet supporters after an interview with MIDAS FM 90.5.
“They beat me like a criminal. They came from nowhere, about 20 of them, armed with sticks and bottles. They said they will kill me if I come to Ekiti again,” Sowore said.
According to him, “I have been a threat to the government since I was 20 years old,” stressing that his activism and opposition to bad governance had consistently put him at odds with the authorities.
He also said, “If you are not a city boy you are a threat to this government,” in reference to his long-standing criticism of the political establishment.
Sowore alleged that those who attacked him came from the Ekiti State Government House and received tracking and operational support from operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
He said, “This is the level of infamy to which Nigeria has been subjected! Those who brutally attacked us in Ado-Ekiti today came from the Government House. They are well known, and they were provided with tracking and operational support by the DSS.”
He further alleged that DSS operatives had been trailing and harassing him since his arrival in the state on Thursday. He added, “They even threatened the manager of the first place where we ate, warning him never to allow us to use his premises again.”
On the peace accords signed by presidential candidates, Sowore said he had discarded the peace deal, citing the recent governorship election in Osun State, where, according to him, 70 people were killed and 38 remained in the mortuary.
The activist and publisher said the incident in Ekiti had again shown that opposition figures were not safe, insisting that there was no altercation as claimed by the police.
He rejected the Ekiti State Police Command’s description of the incident as a mere altercation, saying, “There was no altercation! We were attacked!”
Sowore, who sustained injuries to his face and body and was taken to the Police Hospital in Ado-Ekiti for treatment, called for an independent investigation into the attack and vowed not to be deterred from his campaign activities across the country.