By RASAQ IBRAHIM, Ado-Ekiti

Tragedy has struck Ikere-Ekiti, the second largest town in Ekiti, after gunmen suspected to be herdsmen murdered a cleric, Rev’d Johnson Oladimeji along Igbara-Odo- Ikere-Ekiti road.

Rev. Oladimeji was murdered on Friday evening beside the Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science, and Technology in the town.

The Nation gathered the incident occurred around 5 pm when the gunmen, who were hiding in the forest along the road, waylaid his vehicle and shot sporadically at his vehicle in an attempt to stop the driver.

The cleric was hit by some of the bullets that rained at his vehicle.

A source close to the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the family members had launched a search for the pastor before his body was found in a pool of his blood in his car with gunshot wounds.

The source said: “The man was returning from Osun state on Thursday evening and decided to make use of the Igbara-Odo route to Ikere-Ekiti when he was ambushed and shot dead by gunmen in the evening.

” After series of calls to his phone numbers with no response, members of the church decided to start searching for him and he was found dead this evening (Friday) in his car along the road close to the University of Education and Technology in Ikere-Ekiti.”

The source explained the incident was reported at the Igbara-Odo police station before his corpse was evacuated to the morgue.

Confirming the killing, President of Ekiti Baptist Church, Rev’d Adeyinka Aribasoye, said the deceased was killed while returning from Ipetu-Ijesha in Osun.

According to him: ” The incident is synonymous to a kidnapping case that went wrong, maybe he refused to stop for the abductors thus making them open fire on him.

“The family was already expecting him but when they found out that he was taking too late they began to make series of contacts and search before they found out that he had been killed on the road.”

But, when contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Sunday Abutu, said the command was not aware of the incident. (The Nation)

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