Nigeria: Axe-wielding men attack opposition campaign rally in Lagos

A group of armed men rushed a campaign event in Nigeria on Thursday, attacking journalists and supporters of opposition candidate Peter Obi at a political rally two months before the country's January 16, 2027, presidential election.

Videos uploaded to social media captured the mid-morning incident, showing men armed with axes, clubs and machetes barging into an event center in Lagos, where they attacked supporters of Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate Obi.

Supporters, who vowed they would not be intimidated, blamed the attack on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). APC spokesman Felix Morka rejected the claim, citing a lack of evidence.

The NDC has also accused the APC of being behind the forced cancellation of several of its campaign events, claiming the government of President Bola Tinubu is pressuring venue owners to turn them away.

Here, too, the government has denied the accusations.

Violence is a regular feature of Nigeria's elections and is often carried out by individuals colloquially referred to as "thugs."

Eyewitnesses on Thursday said the attackers, "came into the hall, [and] broke all the entrance doors and the glass walls."

"The NDC guys repelled them, chased them out of the hall into the road," one eyewitness added.

After that, the two groups engaged in pitched street battles for over an hour before police arrived on the scene and began firing tear gas to disperse them.

Security officials on the scene said they had not been on site to protect participants when the violence broke out because they had not been notified of the event.

A local journalist attacked in the melee described being hit with an axe as well as being punched and kicked before thugs made off with all of his equipment.

"I tried to resist, so they started attacking me" said Sam Adebanjo of the online out TheCable.

"I eventually yielded and surrendered the devices when one of them kept shouting, 'Leave the camera — do you want them to kill you?'"

Oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, ranked 112 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index.

January's election will pit President Bola Tinubu, who is seeking his second term in office: against Obi, who placed third in the country's 2023 election; and Atiku Abubakar, who was runner-up in 2023.

Abubakar is facing legal challenges to his candidacy and accuses Tinubu's government of trying to push him out of the way with lawfare, a charge the APC also denies.