The Head of Benghazi Municipality, Omar Al-Barasi, said the municipality members cannot do their jobs and they are working under huge pressure, pointing out that they had been at risk after some gunmen stormed into the municipal council and shut it down last week.

Al-Barasi renewed his call on security departments in Benghazi to reveal the identity of the gunmen as soon as possible to fight this kind of criminal phenomenon, which he described as dangerous and systematic action that aims at destabilizing the city.

“The gunmen who stormed into the municipal council attacked the members both verbally and physically. They vandalized the building and its furniture, then they took the computers as well as the car of one of the members.” Indicated Al-Barasi.

It is worth mentioning that the gunmen held the municipal council’s members hostage for hours inside the building when they stormed into it last week, then they set them free later after shutting down the municipality, according to Al-Barasi’s statement.

Benghazi Municipality said it had complained to the security departments about the closure of its building, indicating that some of the gunmen were civilians and some others were from the military.

The parallel National Oil Corporation in Benghazi suspended its internal work back on May 08 over an armed attack. The NOC urged in a statement the specialized authorities to take the needed measures to bring the perpetrators to justice and ensure that such an attack on state institutions and employees won’t happen again.

It is noteworthy that Benghazi Municipality and the parallel NOC are both located in areas under the control of Haftar’s forces as well as the security departments of Al-Thanni government and Tobruk-based House of Representatives.