Ex- Law Maker Alleges Attack In Ondo

A former member of the House of Representatives from Ondo State, Albert Akintoye, narrowly escaped death yesterday when officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) allegedly opened fire on his convoy

Recounting his ordeals to journalists in Akure also yesterday, the former federal legislator said he was returning home after a political meeting at Ode Irele, in Ondo State, when NSCDC men, numbering about 30 suddenly accosted his convoy along Irele/Ore road and ordered him and members of his entourage to lie on the floor at gun point.

Consequent upon the attack, three people were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries, while two of his vehicles were riddled with bullets.

The former legislator said his curiosity to know the mission of the officers resulted to sporadic shooting.

Akintoye said the officers, who came with two Toyota Hilux vehicles belonging to the state command, molested, manhandled and beat “a hell out of us and damaged our vehicles in the process.”

According to him, two of his colleagues, who sustained injuries, were receiving treatments at undisclosed private hospital in Ore.

Akintoye, who was the chairman of Irele Local Government Area, said the officers apologised to him when they later identified him and discovered that they had mistaken his convoy for that of oil bunkers.

He however, alleged that the attack was politically motivated, saying that the officer, who led the team, ‘is the younger brother to a top politician from the area”.

“The officer claimed that they were chasing some oil bunkers, who normally ply the route, but I want to believe that the attack was politically motivated. I was returning from a political meeting at Irele on that fateful day when the incident happened. It was God that saved me. By now I would have been a dead man. The officers later apologized and claimed that they mistook my convoy for that of oil bunkers,” the former legislator said.

When contacted, the NSCDC spokesman, Kayode Balogun, simply said, “I am not aware that our men attacked or open fire on the former legislator’s convoy. The officers only reported to the command about some items they recovered from some oil bunkers in the area at the weekend. We will critically investigate the matter an address it accordingly,”