There was pandemonium on Wednesday in Sagamu Local Government secretariat, Ogun State as the council Chairman, Funmilayo Efuwape, ordered armed thugs and suspected student cult members to beat up council workers and journalists.
No fewer than 10 workers of the council were seriously injured and hospitalised at the end of the fracas. The thugs used various weapons such as iron rods, broken bottles and cudgels to attack the victims.
Two journalists, Mr. Segun Olatunji of The PUNCH and Mrs. Olayinka Olukoya of Nigerian Tribune were also molested by the thugs who forcibly dragged them into the office of the council chairman.
The thugs seized the journalists’ camera and BlackBerry phone and also deleted all the pictures they had already taken.
Efuwape had earlier dismissed the two journalists from her office when they attempted to get her to comment on the allegations levelled against her by the council workers.
The thugs accosted the journalists for daring to take the picture of the deserted LG secretariat.
According to eyewitnesses, trouble began around 10:43am when the council chairman led thugs who stormed the local government secretariat in three buses to beat up and chase away council workers from the premises for daring to demand that she cautioned a councillor, identified simply as Arode who on Monday allegedly beat up and injured a female worker of the council, Miss Abidemi Awoyemi.
Arode, representing Ode Lemo/Emuren Ward 9 was alleged to have on Monday thrown a chair at Awoyemi and injuring her for telling him that there was no paper with which to print the minutes of the last meeting of the councillors.
The workers had earlier confronted the LG boss and asked her to caution the councillor.
It was learnt that Awoyemi, a senior officer and a recorder with the council legislature, was rushed to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.
Our correspondent gathered that the demand on Tuesday by the local branch of the National Union of Local Government Employees that the councilor be reprimanded and the hospital bill of the injured worker be settled by the council infuriated the council chairman.
Some of the molested council workers who pleaded anonymity alleged that they lost valuables, including cash and cell phones which were forcibly seized from them by the thugs.
All the offices at the council secretariat were subsequently locked up after the thugs had chased the workers.
Confirming the incident, the state President of NULGE, Alhaji Tajudeen Olusesi, described the attitude of the Sagamu Local Government chairman as unbecoming of an elected office holder.
Olusesi said the union would take the necessary steps to ensure that the matter was not treated with levity.
He said, “It’s surprising and embarrassing to the union and the workers of the local government as well as the state NULGE in general because we could not believe that the executive chairman of a local government could invite outsiders to come and beat up council workers.
“That is highly embarrassing and uncalled for. Such an act is not expected of a public officer because an executive chairman of a local government is also a public servant. We are not going to take this lightly. We are going to use all means to address the issue.”