Osun Artisans Protest Assault, Threat To Life By ‘Omooniles’

…. Louts Said They Had To Beat Us To Get Better Pay From House Owners – Victim

The Osun State Artisan Workers Union on Friday, protested at the Palace of the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, over the assault and threat to the life of their members by some louts popularly called ‘Omo Onile’.

The Union said the louts visited sites where their members were working and demanded money, adding that they resulted to assaulting them whenever their demands were not met.

The artisans at the protest

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that two carpenters who were members of the union were killed last year around Estate Area of the state by the louts.

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER, the state coordinator of the Artisans Union, Comrade Adedokun Waheed, noted that they had already written to the state government and security agencies about the problems they were facing from the miscreants.

According to him, members of the union did not want to resort to self-defence, hence the reason why they came to express their displeasure at the palace.

He said: “We are here today to express our displeasure over the way some hoodlums are disturbing our workers in the course of doing their duties.

“These hoodlums will go to wherever our members are working and demand money, beating them up if they don’t give them money. They demand between N100,000 to N1 million.

“We are calling on the state government and the security agencies to call these people into order so that peace will reign in the society.”

One of the victims – artisans who identified himself as AbdulGaniyu Bamikole while recounting his ordeal told OSUN DEFENDER that the louts who assaulted him said they had to do so for the house owner to take them seriously.

According to him, “We were roofing a house around Osogbo Local Government that day when these hoodlums came around. As soon as they arrived, they asked us to come down.

“Before we got down, they had already started beating the boy they met on the ground. I asked why they were beating him since we obeyed them. That Infuriated them and they pounced on me.

“I was beating with a cutlass. They told me they had to beat us so that the owner of the house would take them seriously and pay them well.”

Speaking on behalf of the Ataoja who was said to be out of town, the Babakekere of Osogboland, Prince Sulaiman Olanipekun assured the union that the monarch would look into the issue once he returns.

He appealed to members of the union to keep calm and go about their daily activities peacefully.