August 5, 2022 was a black Friday in Ede, the hometown of the Osun Governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, when a bricklayer, Abideen Olalekan, popularly known as ‘Kuranga’ and a pregnant woman, Kafayat Olalekan, were killed while two houses and three shops were completely razed down.

The crisis, which started on Friday, August 5, with just a mere quarrel among members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Ward 1, Oloba Atapara, Ede, Ede North Local Government of the State of Osun, later degenerated to a full flown catastrophe which claimed two lives and loss of property.

It was learnt that one CSP Omoyele, who reportedly has been pencilled down to be the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the Governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke, led a team of police officers to the operation that eventually led to the killing of two persons belonging to the same family. While one of the deceased was a supporter of the APC, other members of the bereaved family are strong members of the PDP in Ede- North.

New Telegraph gathered that the incident started on Friday evening after a fracas ensued between members of the party at a Ward meeting held in the town. It was reported that one Mr. Olalekan Abideen and Mrs Kafayat Olalekan were gruesomely killed the same day over the crisis. One of the victims of the crisis, Kafayat Olalekan, a nursing mother, who was said to be carrying a four months old pregnancy before she met her untimely death, was shot dead by unknown persons around 10pm at Atapa area of Ede. Her daughter, Azeenat, was reportedly removed from her back and put on her lifeless body after being shot on her breast. Both Abideen Olalekan and Kafayat Olalekan are from the same house and the same family.

It was, however, gathered that the deceased was shot when he asked why the policemen wanted to arrest his younger sister, Rukayat Olasoji, the caretaker Women Leader of Ward 1, Oloba Atapara. Narrating their ordeals in tears, the younger sister of the deceased,

Mrs. Rukayat Olalekan Olasoji alleged that the PDP’s lawmaker and CSP Omoyele as masterminds of the unfortunate killings. Mrs Olalekan, who claimed to be a die-hard member of the PDP in Ede-North, affirmed that apart from his younger brother, Mr Olalekan Ibrahim Tunde, who is a supporter of the APC, every other member of the family especially her mother and siblings are PDP loyalists.

“The whole thing started when we had an argument at our Ward meeting last Friday over the left over money that was supposed to be given to each polling unit in form of appreciation to the PDP members that worked for the victory of the party in the last governorship election. “We were asked to collect N250, 000 each from a lawmaker (name withheld) but we were told that the lawmaker said he had spent the money.

This generated mixed reactions to the extent that everybody in the meeting angrily departed. “After that, we were invited by the party’s elders to forget about it which we obliged. But at the meeting, there was a young guy that insulted our mummy which we rebuked and later, a team of officers came from the Divisional Headquarters to intervene and the matter was settled amicably.

Police involvement

“But 30 minutes later, a team of police officers accompanied by a lawmaker, stormed our compound and started shooting sporadically into the air in a bid to arrest.

They later asked me to follow them to the station, an order that I obliged immediately. But fortunately, my brother, Mr Olalekan Abideen who was later shot and killed was just returning from work, and he blocked the front that they must explain why I needed to follow them, but in the process, one of the officers shot at him and he fell down immediately and was taken away.

“The incident instigated many people around and they started reacting as many scampered for safety. But not quite long after my brother’s corpse was taken away, I went to the Police Divisional Headquarters to formally report the incident. “I was in the police station when the same team came back together with the lawmaker to inform us that his father’s house had been set ablaze and that we were the ones responsible for it.

“He (lawmaker) said to my face that he came back to kill me and if not that he didn’t bring his gun along, he would have killed me personally too but this was prevented by the police officers from the Divisional Headquarters in Ede who explained to him that since I have been with them, I didn’t leave and there was no way I would have perpetrated such as alleged.

“The deceased, Mrs Kafayat Olalekan who backed her kid was shot on the chest but the military personnel who were passing by at that time rescued the baby and took her to the police station where we later recovered the kid,” she added.

Lawmaker’s alleged threat

Fielding questions from journalists, a younger brother to the deceased whose wife was equally shot and killed accused the lawmaker and police officer of masterminding the fierce operation that led to the death of her wife and elder brother.

According to him, the lawmaker had on several occasions threatened to harm his late brother f

or being loyal to the ruling party forgetting that his mother and siblings worked and still working for the PDP. “I know this was premeditated to eliminate our family. I know those that perpetrated the killings and I know why they are after our family, particularly my humble self,” Tunde Olalekan added.

Expressing her ordeal, the elder sister of the deceased, Mrs Yetunde Olalekan appealed to the state government and other concerned authorities to come to the aid of the family saying “no one is safe anymore”.

. … denies involvement

But Babajide Kofoworola Adewumi, the lawmaker in question, denied all the allegations, saying that he was not involved in the killings and destruction of property.

In an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, Adewumi accused the state government of ‘selective sympathy and bias’ in its reaction to the crisis.

The Minority Leader said: “On Friday, August 5, 2022, around 6pm, I went to my party’s meeting at Ward 1, Oloba Atapara, Ede North Local Government. I met the Ward Secretary of the party quarreling with one woman. I calmed both parties down but the situation degenerated to the point where members were pelting sachet water at one another. I was pelted as well but I maintained my calmness. “On my way, I stopped at the PDP secretariat at Oke Areago and held a discussion with some party members there for like 10 minutes.

I thereafter left for Osogbo. I had not gotten to Osogbo when I received a call that some policemen had killed somebody in Ede. “I had not gotten to Ede when I heard that my parents’ house at Iso-Isu had been torched. I was worried and halted my movement to Ede.

I called some policemen to join me and we both headed to my parents’ house. “I am not the one that brought policemen to the meeting or where they shot the deceased. I did not know anything about it.”

Tactical squad

Osun State Commissioner of Police, CP Olawale Olokode, August 6, 2022 ordered the immediate disbandment of CP’s Surveillance Squad. The dissolution is coming on the heels of complaints of unprofessional conduct exhibited by the personnel of the squad.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Osun Command, Mrs Yemisi Opalola made these known in a statement she signed and made available to newsmen in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

“The CP is using this medium to state that this will serve as deterrent to other tactical squads in the Command, as the Command under his watch will not tolerate or condone any act that is unbecoming of a Police officer,” he said.

Concerned resident reacts

Meanwhile, a resident of Osun, Sola Akinpelu, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba to as a matter of urgency order the probe into the killings of pregnant woman and one other resident of Ede, the hometown of the Governor-elect, Senator Ademola.

Akinpelu in a write up called for the immediate redeployment of the CSP Omoyele Isaac Adekunle over his alleged involvement in the incident that led to the death of the two persons in Ede town.

CSO backs Omoyele

A Civil Society group, Law and Order Alliance (LOA) has called on the Inspector General of Police to ignore the blackmail and falsehood a sponsored group are peddling against CSP Omoyele Adekunle , declaring that the vilified officer is wrongly accused because of his records as a crime buster.

The group in a statement signed by its Secretary General, Mr Amos Adeolu, said: “For cleaning up Osun of evil gangs and cultist groups, neither Omoyele nor his squad should be painted with a dark brush by blackmailers who are sponsored to lie to the media in Abuja.” (New Telegraph)

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