Sowore attacked in Ado-Ekiti as police deny he was kidnapped

Omoyele Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) candidate for president in 2027, was set upon at an eatery in the Dalimore area of Ado-Ekiti on Friday, 30 October. His campaign puts the time at about 1pm.

Early posts on social media, including one from Sowore, said he had been abducted. He later gave a different account, describing it as a physical assault on him and his team.

The Ekiti State Police Command says it was not a kidnapping. Its spokesperson, SP Sunday Abutu, said officers answered a distress call and got Sowore out after a clash with a group of people at the venue. Police said he had minor injuries and was being treated at the Police Hospital in Ado-Ekiti, and called the abduction reports false.

Commissioner of Police Michael Falade has ordered a low-key inquiry to find out what led to the clash and to identify and prosecute anyone responsible.

Sowore, for his part, says the Ekiti State Government and the Department of State Services (DSS) were behind it. He claims the attackers came from Government House, that DSS officers had trailed his team since they arrived a day earlier, and that a restaurant manager who hosted them was threatened. He says the trouble started soon after he finished a radio interview at MIDAS FM.

By Friday evening, neither the state government nor the DSS had answered his allegations publicly. His campaign spokesperson, Abdulkareem Musa, has asked the police, the DSS and INEC to look into the incident and guarantee his safety.