Omoyele Sowore, the African Action Congress presidential candidate, has given a detailed account of an attack on him and his team in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, in which armed men injured several people and disarmed his security detail. According to Sahara Reporters, the account was prepared for the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, and covers the incident of Friday, October 30, 2026.
Sowore was travelling with the AAC national chairman, Pastor Samuel Ajeigbe, other party members and activists of the Take It Back Movement. He had arrived in the state the previous day for political engagements, including party meetings, media appearances and the 17.5-kilometre Ikogosi Marathon set for the Saturday.
Why it matters
The complaint alleges that state security personnel may have been involved in an assault on a presidential candidate, and that evidence was removed afterwards. Those are serious claims, and they are allegations rather than established findings. Still, the case puts a spotlight on how political gatherings are policed in Ekiti and on the conduct of security agencies during an election cycle. It also tests whether an investigation can proceed credibly when the complainants say the agencies being asked to look into the matter are themselves named in the complaint.
The sequence of events
According to the account, Sowore and his team met AAC members at a restaurant called 101 in Ado-Ekiti on the Friday, where they discussed party business and ate. Soon after, operatives of the State Security Service, also known as the DSS, reportedly came to the restaurant and told its owner not to host further political meetings by Sowore there. A town hall meeting planned for the venue was then called off.
Sowore went on to MIDAS FM 90.5 for a live interview that ran from about noon until 1pm. He and his entourage then moved to another restaurant, Tawakalitu, for lunch. The report says they were confronted there by armed men carrying guns, clubs and broken bottles.
The assailants, the account states, carried out a coordinated physical attack on Sowore and his security personnel. Sowore escaped the immediate scene but was hurt in the left leg and palm. His guards were disarmed and badly beaten, and several needed medical treatment. The document argues that the weapons used, the disarming of security staff and the injuries suffered point to questions about how the assault was organised.
Injured members of the team were treated at the Police Clinic inside the Police Area Command premises in Ado-Ekiti. The state Commissioner of Police visited them there, but the police later issued a statement calling the incident an "altercation". Sowore's team rejected that description, saying the episode was an organised attack by armed people rather than a clash between rival groups.
Allegations against security personnel and a dispute over CCTV
The report also raises the possible involvement of DSS operatives attached to the Ekiti State Government House. It says information reaching the team suggested those operatives knew where Sowore was and when before the attack, and alleges they passed details of his location to the attackers and went with them to the scene. The document describes this as showing possible involvement of state security personnel in an attack on a presidential candidate and his entourage. It asks for an independent investigation into whether any operatives took part in, aided or had advance knowledge of the assault.
Separately, the team says surveillance equipment was taken from the restaurant where the attack happened. It alleges that police and DSS personnel removed the cameras afterwards. The restaurant's cameras, according to the document, had captured images of the attackers and possibly others who were present. The report says the removal suggests crucial evidence could be hidden, changed or destroyed, and calls for the equipment and all related digital files to be secured at once and examined independently.
The account further alleges that senior DSS officials, including Director-General Tosin Ajayi, contacted media organisations about their coverage of the attack. It says the aim was either to discourage reporting or to shape coverage in a way that played down how serious the assault was.
Coverage of the episode has widened beyond the petition. TheCable reported that police arrested 11 suspects over the alleged attack on Sowore in Ekiti. Punch Newspapers reported that Sowore demanded sanctions after the Ikogosi Marathon barred him from the 2026 edition. Daily Post Nigeria reported that Isaac Fayose told Sowore he felt no sympathy for him and urged him to join the fight against the APC.
What to watch is whether the police and the DSS open the independent inquiry the petition asks for, and whether the restaurant's camera equipment and footage are secured and examined.
