'Nothing will stop us,' Nigerian opposition leader vows after campaign event attack

Armed men attacked supporters and journalists at a campaign event for Nigerian opposition candidate Peter Obi on Thursday, his party and witnesses told AFP, as the country prepares for presidential elections in two months. Elections in Africa's most populous country are repeatedly marred by violence, often carried out by "thugs" -- as they're locally called -- with links to rival politicians. Videos on social media showed men wielding sticks, machetes and axes rushing into a hall of Obi supporters in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, dispersing the crowd. "Nobody is going to intimidate us, we will exercise our right to participate in this election," Osa Director, a spokesman for Obi's Nigeria Democratic Congress, told AFP. He blamed the violence on the ruling All Progressives Congress. Obi came in third in the 2023 elections, behind President Bola Tinubu, who is seeking a second term in the January 16 vote. The APC denied the allegations. "When a person makes an allegation, it is their duty to substantiate and provide evidence," spokesman Felix Morka said. Thursday's violence comes after the NDC had previously blamed a slew of event cancellations on the government, which it said was pressuring venue owners -- claims the government denied. Journalists attacked Mansur Ibrahim, a Nigerian photojournalist at the scene, said a large group of men barged into the venue ahead of Obi's arrival. "They actually came into the hall, broke all the entrance doors and the glass walls," Ibrahim told AFP. "The NDC guys repelled them, chased them out of the hall into the road, and they started throwing stones at each other in the middle of the road," he added. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd as people chanted "APC must go". "See my head, they broke my head with (a) bottle but it's nothing, I'm still standing," an NDC supporter said in an interview clip shared with AFP by local media at the scene. His forehead was wrapped with bloodied bandages. The unnamed man blamed the attack on supporters of the APC who he said were trying to intimidate the opposition, "thinking that we will back down". Another journalist from TheCable, Sam Adebanjo, was beaten and attacked with an axe, and had his equipment stolen, his media outlet reported. Thursday's attack comes as the second-place finisher from 2023, Atiku Abubakar, faces legal challenges over his 2027 candidacy. Abubakar's campaign has blamed the government for being behind the lawsuit, which the ruling party denies.