•Late Oba Babatun Ogunsakin
Mrs Yetunde Ogunsakin, the widow of the slain traditional ruler of Esun Ekiti in Ajoni Local Government Area of Ekiti State Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin, has disclosed his husband’s last request before he was gunned down by his assailants.
Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers on Monday killed two Ekiti State monarchs on the Ipao-Oke Ako Road, reports The PUNCH.
The gunmen killed the Onimojo of Imojo in the Oye Local Government Area, Oba Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Ogunsakin, while the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba in the Ikole Local Government Area, escaped.
Sources said the traditional rulers were returning from a function in Kogi State when their vehicles ran into the suspected kidnappers, who had laid an ambush on the road.
The Chairman of the Ajoni Local Council Development Area, Micheal Ogungbemi, in whose domain the incident took place, said that the dead bodies of the two obas had been recovered from the scene and taken to a mortuary.
The council boss explained that information indicated that the traditional rulers, who were coming from Kogi State, were attacked in the Oke Ako area.
“The monarchs had driven past the checkpoint of the local security outfit when the incident happened. The Alara, upon escape, informed the local security of the development. The bandits were carrying sophisticated arms,” Ogungbemi said.
But speaking during an interview with AIT, the monarch’s widow said before her husband was killed, he had called her that he was on his way back home.
According to her, the monarch said he was hungry and that she should prepare a meal for him before he arrived.
The woman explained that she grew apprehensive after the monarch’s journey which should not be more than one hour, took more time.
The widow said when she called the traditional ruler after his journey was taking more than the normal time, he did not answer his call.
“He called me when he reached Ajowa that he was coming, that he was hungry and I should prepare something for him. Ajowa to this place, I was not checking the time, that it is not supposed to take more than one hour. Getting to one hour, one hour plus, I was calling his phone. He did not pick,” she said.
Kidnappers have continued to unleash terror on citizens in different parts of the country in defiance of security arrangements put in place to tackle the issue of abduction for ransom, which has lately assumed the level of commercial transactions.
For instance, three police inspectors were kidnapped last Friday evening in the Ohoror community, off the East-West Road, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, while gunmen, on Saturday, kidnapped the Oyo State Chairman, of the Tipper, Lorry, and Quarry Park Management System, Alhaji Akeem Akintola.
Similarly, on Saturday, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Uturu, Prof Godwin Emezue, was abducted from a petrol station at Umuekwule, Amachara, a community in the Umuahia South Local Government Area of the state.
This was as civil society groups, under the aegis of the Civil Society Joint Action Group, said 17,469 Nigerians were abducted under the Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu administrations from 2019 to date.
