Ondo community decries high profile killings, kidnappings

Varsity Shut Over Insecurity, Alleged Rape Of Students

Residents of Ifon Community in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State have decried the incessant killings in the area, seeking justice for the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Dele Isibor, who was gruesomely murdered recently.

The community leaders also alleged that security operatives were providing protection for suspected killer-herders that are terrorising the area, killing their relatives indiscriminately.

At a town hall meeting in Ifon yesterday, headquarters of Ose LGA, the Coordinator of Progressive Minds, Mr Olaniyi Eni-Olotu, said the killing of Isibor, which occurred last weekend, was a deadly blow to the community.

Eni-Olotu said the murder occurred when they were yet to recover from the murder of their king, the Olufon of Ifon, Oba Israel Adeusi, who was killed on November 26, 2020 by yet to be identified gunmen at Elegbeka village while returning from a meeting in Akure.

He lamented that the community was thrown into another round of pandemonium on June 13, 2021, when kidnappers struck again along Imoru road in Ifon, shooting sporadically at all the vehicles plying the route.

According to him, the unfortunate incident led to the death of Isibor, who sustained severe injuries from the gunshot and four people were kidnapped by the unknown gunmen.

He noted that the influx of the heavily armed herdsmen from other neighbouring states into the forest reserves and farmland around the community makes life miserable for farmers and inhabitants of the area.

The community leader said the armed men were terrorising the area and were responsible for the series of kidnapping and armed robberies occurring in the community lately. He expressed dismay that the Police Divisional Headquarters and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) offices in Ifon have no functional patrol vehicles, saying it constitutes major challenge for the security agencies to do their jobs efficiently.

MEANWHILE, Ondo State-owned Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa, has reportedly been shut for two weeks sequel to the alleged raping of four female students by unknown gunmen.

The Guardian learnt that the students embarked on a peaceful protest on Thursday to express their displeasure over incessant robberies, threats to lives and properties and rape of female students by suspected hoodlums in the neighbourhood.

According to sources, the aggrieved students partially barricaded the Okitipupa-Igbokoda road and disrupted the free-flow of traffic as they registered their grievances.

The President, Student Union Government (SUG) of the institution, Damilola Okunomo, while speaking with journalists in Akure yesterday, confirmed the series of incidences owing to insecurity and that the female students were raped recently. 

Okunomo, who expressed dissatisfaction over the ugly development, recounted that they were dispossessed of their valuables like laptops and handsets among other things at gunpoint.

He added that four female students were raped two weeks ago, alleging that the institution’s management was not doing enough on the security of lives and properties of students.

ENI-OLOTU has, however, commended the Ondo State Government under the leadership of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredol (SAN) for the numerous developmental projects carried out in Ifon, but said insecurity is threatening their lives. 

Eni-Olotu pleaded for special consideration to be given to Ifon indigenes for recruitment into the Amotekun Corps, explaining that they are more familiar with the terrain and work more to fight insecurity confronting the area. He also pleaded for the intervention of the President, Inspector General of Police and the Government to fish out the killers of Oba Adeusi and Isibor in order to bring them to book without further delay.

One of the community leaders, Mr. Sunday Amudeli, who spoke at the meeting, lamented that Ifon community had been in the news for over a year as a result of insecurity and other wrong reasons either about killing or kidnapping. Amudeli further stated that Ifon occupies a strategic location in the state, serving as a boundary to Edo and Ondo State.

“A Mobile Police Station is needed as a matter of urgency or an establishment of a Military barracks or a naval base. The community is conducive and is ready to provide the land for stability, peace and to maintain law and order.”

Expressing the angst of the youths, Abdullahi Ekere, said that they do not want to take law into their hands, stressing that this is why they were calling on President Buhari, the IGP, military and the state government to provide effective security in the area.

While reacting on the issue, the PPRO, Mr. Tee-Leo Ikoro, sympathised with the family of the deceased, adding that everyone knows that the country is going through a new phase of security challenges.

“The police are not magicians, it is the people that will give them information. Concerning the issue of the monarch that was killed last year, an investigative team is carrying out an investigation as ordered by the Commissioner of Police.”

Ikoro urge the community, being the border town, to be at alert and always report any issue that they were suspicious of, adding that the entire country needs attention and the police need more people to help.