Ex-Ekiti Commissioner Escapes Assassination

Ex-Ekiti Commissioner Escapes Assassination

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

A former commissioner in the first term of Governor Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State, Mrs Funke Owoseeni, on Thursday escaped death by a whisker
as suspected assassins besieged her house located at Ijesa Isu in Ikole Local Government area of the state.

But her husband, Mr Paul Owoseeni, was not that lucky as the evil men attacked him with machete and chopped off five fingers.

Mrs Owoseeni also served as the Caretaker Chairman of Ikole Council area and at a time the Women leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State.

Speaking with journalists via telephone in Ado Ekiti on Friday, Mrs Owoseeni said the assailants stormed her house along Ikole road at about 8.30pm and turned off the generating set outside, thereby subjecting the hitherto well-lit environment into total blackout.

She described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt by those, who according to her, had already been revealed to the police during their visit to the scene of the incident around 11pm on the day the attack occurred.

She said while some students resident with her were about restoring light to the building, the bandits swooped on them and started requesting where she was at that time.

“When the light went off, we suspected that the generating set was still running outside and we asked those students living with us to go out and check what was happening.

“A few minutes later, we heard them saying please save us, save us and
my husband who was not with a torch rushed out to see what was happening. The impression we first had was a case of electrocution.
While my husband rushed out to save the situation, I tried to get my
torch to be able to see clearly.

“Shortly, the voices changed and I started hearing thief, thief, thief but my husband was already in their midst with those children. But because I went with a torch, I was able to see them and I had to rush back inside and hid myself somewhere.

“They brought my husband inside and started asking, where is your wife? We are here for her and not you. When he didn’t tell them where I was, they started attacking him with machete and other dangerous weapons and they did that until they chopped off his fingers and they fled when they saw that he had passed out,” she stated.

Mrs Owoseeni said they immediately took her husband to the General Hospital to stabilise him before he was referred to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) for intensive medicare.

“From EKSUTH, we were referred to Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti and now we are in a private hospital in Abuja, where my husband is receiving treatment.

“I see no reason why someone would want to kill me for raising my voice against injustice in the running of our party. I had given the names of those I suspected to the police for investigation,” she said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Division, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, said the case has not been incidented at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti.

“I have not been briefed but I know that the matter would have been under serious investigation since the victim said our men at Ikole Division had been informed.

“I am going to contact our men at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to know how far they have gone about the case,” he said.

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