A commissioner in Ekiti State House of Assembly Commission and an indigene of Ewu Ekiti in the Ilejemeje Local Government Area of the state, Segun Erinle, said on Sunday that the tension in the community following the shooting by bandits on Friday of the monarch, Oba Adetutu Ajayi, had gone down.
Erinle, who was at the monarch’s bedside, said the return of calm to the community followed information that Oba Ajayi was recovering in the hospital, where he was rushed to for medical attention.
Masked gunmen had on Friday attacked the monarch along the Ayetoro Ekiti-Ewu Road by firing at his vehicle and in the process injuring the traditional ruler.
The former House of Assembly member said, “The Elewu is responding to treatment. He is feeling better. Bullets have been extracted, we thank God. Two bullets were extracted from Kabiyesi’s body. The tension in the community has gone down. We have calmed the people down. The police and operatives of the Amotekun Corps have been around and have been patrolling the town. Everything is calm now. Moreover that the Kabiyesi is getting better.”
Erinle added, “According to information and what Kabiyesi told me, he was returning from Ayetoro Ekiti to Ewu, where he went to buy something. Many times, he prefers to go himself by way of driving as a form of exercise. On his way back, he said he met the masked criminals at a spot, where the road was bad, and they started shooting.
“So, he stopped and they told him that they would kill him. They took his phones and money, which was about N100,000, and in the process, Kabiyesi just drove off. That was how he managed to escape from them. But they rained bullets on his car as he drove off. I still charge the police and other security agencies to try their best to arrest the culprits and as well increase the security outreach in all our towns and villages in the state, especially those of us that are near the border towns.”
The state Commissioner for Information, Akin Omole, who decried the attack on the traditional ruler, said the government was bothered by the incident, but gave an assurance that the appropriate agencies of government handling the matter would follow it to a logical conclusion.
Omole said, “We are bothered as a government. The police have been informed and they have swung into action. This is a criminal case. When things border on criminal or security matter, it is the security agencies that are directly in charge. Ours is to give support to them to do their job.
“We are already in the process of making sure that such things do not happen again. It is prevention that is important. We know that security issues are a challenge in Nigeria, so, we are taking the necessary steps”.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Sunday Abutu, said the command was making efforts to arrest the culprits, adding that no arrest had been made so far.
Efforts to nab the attackers, he said, included “combing of the bushes and forests in the community and indeed the state by police personnel in collaboration with the personnel of the Amotekun Corps and local hunters”.
Abutu, who said the intention of the criminals would be unravelled as soon as an arrest was made, added that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Tunde Mobayo, had urged citizens to be security conscious and promptly report any untoward incident or happening observed in their locality to the police.
