Ikirun Attack: Victims Recount Ordeal, Say Thugs With “Oyetola’s Face Cap” Unleashed Mayhem

 

•Gunshots At Baderinwa, Folorunso’s Houses In Ikirun, Iree

By Ismaeel Uthman

VICTIMS of the Tuesday attack on members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who belong to Hon. Rasaq Salinsile faction of the party have recounted their ordeals, saying they escaped death by the whiskers.

The victims said some of the hoodlums who attacked them at the Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-Otin Federal Constituency meeting held at Ikirun, put on ‘Oyetola 4+4 face cap’.

According to the victims, the hoodlums came from inside the Ifelodun Local Government Secretariat to unleash mayhem on them.

It would be recalled that armed political hoodlums suspected to have been sponsored by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola-led IleriOluwa faction of the APC, on Tuesday, attacked members of the party who belong to Hon. Rasaq Salinsile faction.

The Salinsile faction was holding its Federal Constituency tour meeting in Ikirun, the headquarters of Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-Otin Federal Constituency at an open ground beside the Ifelodun Local Government Council Secretariat when the thugs came on two different occasions to launch an attack on them.

It was gathered that the hoodlums had earlier came around 11.00am to destroy the canopy and chairs to be used for the progrramme.

They later returned to attack members of the APC around 2pm when the programme was about to be concluded.

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER in a telephone interview on Wednesday, popular Disc Joker, Saheed Tanimola, known as DJ Bassman, who was at the meeting said his apple laptop and speakers were destroyed by the thugs.

According to Tanimola, the hoodlums used machete to cut the speakers, adding that the screen of his laptop was broken during the attack.

He said: “On Monday, my service was requested by Hon. Lani Baderinwa for a meeting in Ikirun. On that fateful day, Hon Moshadek (Alh. Moshood Oluawo, Commissioner 1, State Universal Basic Education Board in the state) called me on phone and asked me not to go to the programme. Why would I not go to a place where I would make money?

“I set up my systems and speakers and when the programme was on, I just discovered that some thugs started attacking people. I did not know where they came from. I had to run for my life with my aide.

“They broke my apple laptop screen; they destroyed my two full range speakers and their standings with cutlasses. I have never experienced that kind of attack all my life! What is my offence?

“You did not give me money and the next thing is for you to destroy my equipment! Many people, most especially the elderly women, were wounded in the attack. You would sympathise with the people if you were there.”

Another victim of the attack who prayed not to be named said: “I am from Oyan, I went to Ikirun on Tuesday for our party’s programme. Around 10am, some hoodlums came to chase us away. Some of the thugs wore Oyetola’s face caps. They destroyed the chairs and canopies.

“After sometime, we gathered again and the programme started. Everything was fine until around 2pm when these hoodlums came back again. They were about 50. They started shooting at us. One of them used clubs to hit my leg and I could not walk properly again.”

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that some of the hoodlums resorted to night attack on the APC members in Ikirun and Iree.

There were reported gunshots at the house of the State Secretary of the APC, Mr. Adelani Baderinwa, in Ikirun around 10pm.

The gunshots, according to residents of the area, was fired by some thugs who rode on two motorcycles to the front of the house.

Baderinwa confirmed the incident, saying he was lucky not to be at home when the hoodlums came.

Also, the vehicle of a former councillor in Ward 10, Iree, Boripe Local Government, Hon Tunde Folorunso, was vandalized around 10pm in Iree.

Folorunso said: “I was hearing footsteps of some people approaching my house around 10pm. My neighbour was also hearing the footsteps and he pointed his torchlight at the direction of the people. By that time, I peeped through my window and saw some guys wearing IleriOluwa T-shirt and face caps. They were holding guns and cutlasses. One of them shouted ‘release, release, when the torchlight was pointed to them.

“They started shooting sporadically. I found a safe place to hide myself. My car was vandalised by the hoodlums.”

Other victims of the attack include Mr Sulaiman Kazeem, Dauda Adekunle and Motunrayo Lawal who sustained injury on her hand.

Court Remands Ifelodun LG APC Chairman, Others Who Attended Meeting

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the APC in Ifelodun Local Government, Hon. Solomon Alatayo and a leader of the party, Siju Oyewumi have been remanded in correctional center by an Osogbo Magistrate Court.

The court also remanded three other APC members, Abayomi Akinlade (38), Sodiq Atitebi (25) and Azeez Adejimi in connection with the crisis that broke out at the meeting.

The Alatayo and other APC members, who are loyalists of Aregbesola, were arrested late Tuesday night by the police at their various houses in Ikirun and Eko-Ende.

The accused persons were arraigned in court on Wednesday on the allegation that they attempted to kill one Fatai Asiwaju at the APC meeting.

Asiwaju, OSUN DEFENDER gathered, is one of the thugs that attacked the APC members at the event. He was reportedly caught and beaten by the Ikirun youths who supported the security agents in chasing away the hoodlums.

The APC chieftains were also accused of conspiracy and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.

But they all pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge leveled against them.

Defence Counsel, Olatunbosun Oladipupo, prayed the court to admit the APC chieftains to bail, noting that they would provide reliable sureties.

Oladipupo maintained that the accused persons were innocent, noting that Asiwaju, the complainant in the case, was the one that led attack on the accused persons.

Defence counsel said Akinlade, the first accused person, was not even at the meeting and was arrested at his house by the police.

However, the bail application was opposed by the police prosecutor, Inspector Jacob Akintunde on the ground that other suspects in the case were still at large.

Akintunde said the accused persons would jump bail if granted.

In his ruling, the presiding Magistrate, A.A Adebayo, ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Ilesa Correctional Centre.

The case was adjourned till February 23, 2022 for ruling on bail.

Party Kicks Against Arrest of Members

Reacting to the arrest of the APC chieftains, the Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Abiodun Agboola, condemned what it described as gestapo like manner of arrest of the APC leaders.

Agboola, in a press statement, noted that the midnight hunting of the party leaders and members by the police in Ifelodun local government portends great danger to the nation’s fledgling democracy and critical insecurity.

He said it was suprising that the police could turn a blind eye to the assailants who attacked members of the party and arrest innocent people who are the victims of attack

Agboola reiterated that the federal constituency meeting held on Tuesday in Ikirun was disrupted by armed political hoodlums sent by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola-led IleriOluwa faction of the party.

The Publicity secretary stated that the ‘IleriOluwa thugs’ attacked members of the party at the meeting with guns, cutlasses and other weapons.

He said it was clear from beginning that Governor Oyetola was not happy that the federal constituency meeting would be held in his domain.

The press statement reads: “Their (Oyetola and IleriOluwa faction) jaundiced claims was that nobody should express opposing views to the Governor’s bid for second term from the federal constituency which is undemocratic.

“The police could only be serving the script of the government who is bent on coercing people to support it for a failed second term bid, with such an unacceptable way of arrest.

“We know for a fact that the police, having failed in its duty to protect us at the meeting as would have been expected of it, will look for any excuse to save face.

“We regret to note that it is our members that they can arrest at midnight when we have formally written the command, with audio/video evidence that the Governor Oyetola’s IleriOluwa group have concluded plans to attack all of our events.

“We note with sadness that the police, like it has done before in the case of “Osun APC 7”, prefers to obey unlawful orders from Governor Oyetola’s men for political reasons rather than its constitutional roles. This injustice will continue to lead Nigeria into blind alleys.

“It is unfortunate that Governor Oyetola is gradually taking Osun to an undemocratic and dictatorial level where the police are used to muzzle the public for political gain.

“We note that those who threaded this path never ended well as the people are sufficiently dynamic to know how to respond to brutal treatment from a wicked ruler.’’