Murder: Police move Ekiti ACN chairman to Abuja

Embattled chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State, Chief Olajide Awe, has been taken to the Force Headquarters in Abuja, sources in the state have disclosed.
Chief Awe, a high chief of Erinjiyan-Ekiti, the community where violence broke out on Saturday in which a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Ayodele Jeje, was shot dead and Chief (Mrs.) Juliana Adewumi and Chief Gbenga Adewumi, received gunshot wounds, was accused of complicity in the murder by the PDP.
It was gathered that the Ekiti ACN boss was whisked to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for questioning over the murder, with unconfirmed sources claiming that he had been in detention since Tuesday, from where he was taken to Abuja.
Sources said Awe was moved to Abuja around 5am on Wednesday by the police on the order of the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar while other sources claimed that Awe was taken to Abuja via the Zone 8 of the Nigeria Police in Lokoja, Kogi State.
Reacting to the development, Publicity Secretary of Ekiti ACN, Prince Tunde Adeleke, confirmed to newsmen in a telephone interview that “Chief Awe has gone to Abuja and he was invited to Abuja by the police for fact-finding.”
Adeleke said: “It is true that our Chairman was invited to Abuja and the invitation was just for fact-finding over the Erinjiyan issue. He was neither arrested nor harassed. The invitation is normal under this circumstance.”
On whether he was detained overnight by the police in Ekiti State, the ACN spokesman said “Awe is not a criminal and no case has been established against him, so why would he be detained by the police? There is no iota of truth in the rumour that Awe was detained overnight before being taken to Abuja.”
However, when contacted, the Ekiti Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, said Awe was invited on Tuesday and was allowed to go after interrogation, and added that he could not confirm whether the ACN Chairman had been invited by the Force headquarters in Abuja.
Babayemi said: “Chief Jide Awe is a Nigerian and I think if Abuja has something to confirm from him, he can be invited.”
Gunmen had, on Saturday night invaded Erijiyan in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State at about 10.30pm and allegedly attacked ACN members meeting on their planned defection to the PDP the next day; and shot dead Jeje and injured others and vandalised vehicles and houses.
Meanwhile, the member representing Ekiti Central Federal Constituency II in the House of Representatives, Mr. Oyetunde Ojo, has alleged that the chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State, is being persecuted.
Ojo, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Communications, Mr. Oyetunde Ojo, alleged that the killing of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member in Erinjiyan his and Awe’s community was an “internal crisis,” claiming that the PDP was “using the ‘federal might’ to oppress members of the ACN in the state.”
Ojo in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday claimed that the arrest of Chief Jide Awe as “an oppression from the PDP,” alleging that “the killing and the crisis in Erinjiyan on Saturday was an intra-party crisis within the PDP which the ACN knows nothing about.
“But it disheartening that since our chairman was arrested by the police and no member of the PDP has been invited by the police since they started their investigation.”
Tribune