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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Alara of Ara, in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Oba Adebayo Fatoba, has narrated how he managed to escape from gunmen who attacked and killed two of his colleagues last Monday.
Oba Fatoba, along with two other monarchs from the state – Onimojo of Imojo Ekiti in Oye Local Government and Elesun of Esun Ekiti in Ajoni, Ikole Local Government, were attacked by gunmen while returning from a meeting in Kogi State.
The other two monarchs were killed by the gunmen while Oba Fatoba managed to escape.
Narrating the incident to Awikonko, an online television, Oba Fatoba stated that while they were in motion, he was busy reading something on his phone before realising that the vehicle had stopped.
“I was reading something on my phone when I suddenly felt that the driver slammed the brakes. As we looked up, we saw guns pointed at us. If they were kidnappers, they would ask us to get down, raise our hands and so on.
“I wish I could show you my body, you would have seen the cuts,” the monarch said, adding that he still feels the pain from the attack.
Explaining how what transpired at the scene, Oba Fatoba said: “I noticed that they didn’t understand English. They were with a big machete and they had other ones too. I saw an AK-47, a pump-action gun and a locally-made one.”
The monarch recalled that as he wanted to get out of the vehicle, one of the gunmen tried to hit his head with a weapon but he used the door to protect himself.
“It was the door that was hit.It was a war zone,” he added.
Oba Fatoba noted that he started running immediately he got out of the car, adding that he could hear the sound of gunshots behind him as he ran.
The monarch said when he got to one of the security guards, he asked him to shoot into the air but the gun jammed.
Oba Fatoba further explained that due to fear, the guards couldn’t come to rescue them.
While denying insinuations that he and his driver escaped with the aid of spiritual powers, he said: “People who said that I disappeared, I want them to know that it is a lie. I ran to the security guards that we put in that area because it had been a hotspot. I wanted to get to them.”
He continued: “They didn’t concentrate on the driver. He wore a shirt and had a small stature. They only collected the car key. They killed the others.”
“What happened was they first came to me. Two came out from my right side and one from the left side. They came aggressively. The moment they collected the car key from my driver, they left him. He prostrated on the floor with his hands on the ground.
“As for me, I fought my way out and they shot. I heard the gunshots. God didn’t allow the shots to hit me. By the time I looked back, my colleagues were on the ground. I don’t know how that happened. Some cars that were behind us had to reverse.
“I was reading something on my phone at the time, so the attack came as a surprise. I lost my phone but the security guard had the phone number of the monarch whose community was close by. It was the monarch who mobilised more security guards to meet us there.”
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Police Command disclosed that it had arrested one suspect linked to the killing of the two traditional rulers.
The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Dare Ogundare, said that the suspect, Babusa Lede, had confessed to his involvement in the killing of the two monarchs, adding that efforts were on to apprehend others involved.