Armed men attack Peter Obi campaign event in Lagos

Men armed with sticks, machetes and axes forced their way into a campaign hall for Nigerian opposition candidate Peter Obi in Lagos on Thursday, scattering supporters and journalists two months before the country's presidential election.

Obi's party, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, said the attackers were backers of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Videos circulated on social media showed the men surging into the hall where Obi supporters had gathered for a town hall meeting.

No deaths were reported. A photojournalist at the scene, Mansur Ibrahim, told AFP that a large group arrived before Obi did. "They actually came into the hall, broke all the entrance doors and the glass walls," he said. Party members pushed the intruders out into the street, where the two sides threw stones at each other, and police fired tear gas. The crowd chanted "APC must go", Africanews reported.

Osa Director, a spokesman for the NDC, said the party would not be deterred. "Nobody is going to intimidate us, we will exercise our right to participate in this election," he said, blaming the APC for the attack.

APC spokesman Felix Morka replied that accusations must be backed by proof. "When a person makes an allegation, it is their duty to substantiate and provide evidence," Africanews reported him saying.

A supporter interviewed by local media at the scene had his forehead wrapped in bloodied bandages. "See my head, they broke my head with (a) bottle but it's nothing, I'm still standing," he said.

Sam Adebanjo, a journalist for the Nigerian outlet TheCable, was beaten and attacked with an axe and had his equipment stolen, the outlet reported.

Obi finished third in the 2023 election behind President Bola Tinubu, who is seeking a second term in the January 16 vote. The NDC has blamed a series of cancelled campaign events on the government, which denies pressuring venue owners. Atiku Abubakar, who came second in 2023, is fighting legal challenges to his 2027 candidacy; his campaign says the government is behind the suits, which the ruling party denies.

Elections in Africa's most populous country have repeatedly been marred by violence, often carried out by hired crowds, locally called "thugs", with links to rival politicians.