With governorship election more than one year ahead, the politics of Ekiti State has taken a dangerous dimension, with the orgy of violence and killing recorded recently. Indeed, last week, blood flowed and property worth several millions of naira were destroyed.
The first casualty in this politics of blood and machete, as some people have dubbed the situation, is Mr. Ayodele Jeje, who was killed by political thugs. Also a 76-year-old woman, Chief Mrs. Juliana Adewunmi, Iya-Oloja (head of market women) of Erijinyan-Ekiti and her 37-year-old son, Mr. Gbenga Adewunmi, were severally shot and wounded. The Nissan Armada, with registration number, Oba Odo 111 Erijiyan-Ekiti, belonging to a community leader, Chief Adewunmi, a Nissan Primera car with registration number Lagos CE344AKD and a Volkswagen Golf car were also vandalised.
In the incidents that resulted in these casualties, political thugs had unleashed terror, as some former members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) planned defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) .
Checks revealed that the violence swept Erijiyan Ekiti, a sleepy town in Ekiti West Local Government Area, Iyin-Ekiti and Oke-mesi, when political thugs flexed muscles, in a battle of supremacy.
Saturday Sun gathered that in Erijiyan, armed political thugs attacked politicians, leaving in its trail, blood and sorrow. The PDP, in a press release on Tuesday, April 2, had stated: “The killing in Erijiyan, the hometown of Chief Jide Awe, was a murder scripted, planned and executed by the Action Congress of Nigeria. Available evidence shows that a sizeable number of ACN chieftains plotted and masterminded the crisis that led to the killing of the politician because of his perceived popularity in the community.”
This allegation was, however, debunked by the state ACN Chairman, Chief Awe. He alleged that PDP factions had clashed in the community. He accused PDP of violent bahaviour, while saying that the ACN was a more civil and law abiding party.
The ACN chieftain’s position notwithstanding, the police had summoned him for explanation. He was moved to Abuja, where he’s currently in detention.
The politics of defection
At the centre of the fracas was the planned defection of Olusegun Adewunmi from the ACN. The politician revealed that he narrowly escaped death on March 30. According to him, he had been with the ACN since inception and decided to dump the party when he was not allowed to vie for House of Assembly seat in the last elections.
“I started with them when it was ACD before it transformed to AC and later to ACN. I was with them at the Eagle Square, Abuja when the ACD was launched. Chief Awe and Mr. Samuel Ajayi, the Baba Ijo of CAC in Erijiyan, led the delegates to Abuja. When the name of AC was to be changed to ACN, at Blue Roof, LTV House, Ikeja in Lagos, I was there with Chief Awe, in company with some friends in Erijiyan.”
Adewunmi said that trouble started when he picked a nomination form to contest for the House of Assembly seat. According to him, youths of Eka-Meta, in Erijiyan has declared that they would not fold their hands and watch the people of Aramoko-Ekiti dominate them politically, as, according to them, since 1999 the Aramoko, a community out of the five communities that make up Ekiti West State Constituency 11, has been producing the House of Assembly member. He said the youths had asked him to contest the election, for equity and fairness.
Based on this, he obtained the ACN nomination form and contested the primary election along with others. According to him, he defeated all other contestants and won the primary elections. He revealed that the ticket was eventually given to another person. He said: “The youths felt maybe we should wait and see if I could be compensated with one political appointment or the other. But nothing came. We then tried to approach the Chief of Staff for his intervention, but the man said Chief Awe was the alpha and omega of Erijiyan politics and that we should go to back to him.
“When the youth discovered that those who did not participate in the election struggles were the ones the government was giving appointments, they decided that though PDP is not in power in Ekiti, they wanted to defect from ACN to PDP and ensure they win Eka-Meta and the entire Ekiti West Local Government for PDP. That is why I came into the picture. It is a clarion call, which I cannot refuse because in politics when the majority decide, you have to abide. I spoke with them but they said they were fed up and there was nothing I could do other than to join forces with them.”
Adewunmi had decided to defect to the PDP to actualize the dream of his people. It was on the eve of his formal defection that crisis broke out.
He told Saturday Sun that when March 31 was fixed for the defection, he formally wrote to the Commissioner of Police, the Area Commander at Ijero, the DPO at Aramoko and the Police Officer in charge of Erijiyan to notify them of the programme, to ensure adequate security.
He expressed shock that policemen came to his family house at Erinjiyan on March 30, alleging that they heard that arms and ammunition were stockpiled in his brother’s hotel.
“They then searched everywhere and found nothing incriminating in either of the two places they mentioned,” he said.
The politician said the police made him to sign a document to prove they searched the place and found nothing incriminating. He said he had contacted the state PDP chairman, who contacted the Commissioner of Police on phone on the development.
“We later found out that those policemen were from Government House,” he stated.
Adewunmi said that later in the day, sporadic gunshots rocked the community, sparking panic. He said that in order to stay out of trouble, he was heading for his brother’s hotel when he was attacked. In the attack, his car was destroyed and he escaped by the whiskers.
It was not only Adewunmi that escaped death. Chief Boluwaji Adewunmi, Oba Odo Erijinyan-Ekiti, also did.
The royal father said that armed political thugs also invaded his house and shot several times at him and his wife. He said that when he and his wife survived the attack miraculously, the assailants descended on his Armanda Jeep, which was riddled with bullets.
The Oba accused ACN members of being the brains behind the attack.
Fayose warns the police
While condemning the act, former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has urged the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to take over investigation of the matter and ensure that those connected with the murder were brought to justice.
He warned the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sotonye Wakama, against obstructing the course of justice.
Speaking at a press parley in his Afao Ekiti country-home, Fayose said: “The rate of killing is worse than any government ever. If you take the statistics of political intolerance and politically-motivated killings, you will see that this government is the worst.”
Saying that Ekiti was gradually sliding into anarchy, Fayose stated: “Something is fundamentally wrong and the police hierarchy in Abuja must do something about the development. There is no politically motivated killing in Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Osun and Ogun states that are being governed by Action Congress of Nigeria. Why is Ekiti different?
“It has been the noise of the ACN that PDP and Fayose were the ones making trouble or killing people, but now our people can see who the true killers are.”
The former governor urged the police to make public the outcome of the investigation conducted on the series of attacks launched against his campaign train last November and other reported cases of murder in the state.
“It was Governor Fayemi that wrote a letter to the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of investigation (DIGD) to investigate the violence that is fast springing up in the state, but up till now, nothing has been done. So, we demand that the outcome of the investigations be made open to Nigerians and those indicted should be prosecuted,” he said.
Ekiti government denies allegations
Commissioner for Information, Mr. Tayo Ekundayo, described the Fayose’s position as a figment of his own imagination, saying the people of Ekiti know who the real killers are. He said that there was no iota of truth in the allegation that the government was piling pressure on the police to cover up the Erinjiyan murder, saying that the governor was not aiding or abetting criminality.
Ekundayo said that the issue of killing “is a grievous offence and Fayemi frowned at it. So, we are appealing to the Commissioner of Police to investigate the matter thoroughly and in a most professional way and bring the culprits to book.”
Accord Party leader reacts
The state leader of the Accord Party, Barrister Kole Ajayi, described the Ekiti political violence as barbaric. “People should be allowed to align with any party of their choice. What happened in Erijiyan Ekiti is a manifestation of the fact that ACN and PDP have no other thing to offer than violence,” he stated.
Ekiti CNPP Chairman appeals to PDP and ACN
The state Chairman of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Mr. Tunji Ogunlola, said Ekiti had been peaceful since Fayemi became governor. He pointed out that the crisis in Oke-mesi last weekend was between the ACN factions, which can easily be resolved.
The lawyer said that the violence of Erijinyan was also between PDP factions, while appealing to the people involved to resolve it among themselves.
He said: “Even if that of Erijinyan is between ACN and PDP, as some people are saying, both Oke-mesi and Erijinyan are internal problem between the ACN and PDP. And that should not be enough to say there is crisis in Ekiti State because all happened within the Ekiti West Local Government Area. Each of the party will resolve it amicably. In politics you cannot rule out crisis.
“I will just appeal to both the ACN and PDP to shun violence and embrace peace for this state to continue to move forward. After all, we can all see the good work the governor is doing across the state.”
ACN, PDP warn police
Meanwhile, the ACN has warned the police not to intimidate or harass their chairman over the Erinjinyan Ekiti crisis, saying their hands are clean.
In a release made available to Saturday Sun, the party said: “Our attention has been drawn to the campaign of calumny and orchestrated plot to implicate the Chairman, Ekiti State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), High Chief Jide Awe and other ACN members over the recent unfortunate incident in Erinjinyan, leading to the death of one Mr. Ayo Jeje.
“It is a known fact that there are factions within the PDP, which are responsible for incessant skirmishes among them during rallies, party primaries or meetings. This has happened in Ilawe, Oye, Ikere and Efon, where many of their members sustained injuries…The Erinjinyan shooting incident is not different from the pattern of violence which has been the antecedent of the PDP, which is as a result of the factions in the PDP as factions try to prevent another faction from taking part in the defection ceremony. The shooting later resorted in the death of Mr. Ayo Jeje, while two others were wounded in the compound of the PDP stalwart.”
The PDP state Chairman, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, had earlier, at a press conference in Ado Ekiti, commended the Commissioner of Police over the arrest of two persons in connection with the murder. He, however, described as diversionary and criminal the statement, saying that the murder was caused by an internal crisis in the PDP.
Ogundipe stated that it was unfortunate for the ACN members to have denied the killing, even when the victims could recognise them vividly among the hoodlums that attacked the community, leading to the killing of one person and many others injured.
The PDP chairman expressed optimism that the police would do what is expected of them by unravelling those behind the killing and bring them to justice for the 2014 election to be peaceful in the state.
While lamenting the killings of his members, Ogundipe said: “Cases abound where ACN, through their killer squad, has attacked members of the PDP in the past. Our members were attacked in Moba Local Government Area and the ward Chairman of the PDP, Chief Awolumate, was killed in Ilawe Ekiti; our programmes were disrupted by these hoodlums.”
He said further: “In Omuo Ekiti, two of our members were killed by this notorious gang when our party was having a programme. In Ilasa, several houses were burnt by suspected ACN members. This is a murder too many. This latest bloodletting must not go unresolved.”
ACN calls for the release of Awe
The ACN has called on the Inspector General of Police to order the immediate release of their chairman, saying that his detention was a clear case of victimisation.
SUN
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