Residents flee Ogun community after killing of monarch

Fear has enveloped Agodo in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State as residents have begun deserting the village following the brutal killing of their acclaimed monarch, Ayinde Odetola.

Hoodlums Tuesday attacked, killed, and burnt the body of the monarch.

Findings by PREMIUM TIMES show that the killing was the second of such in less than three months.

The monarch’s aide was also killed the same day.

His brother was hacked to death by unknown assailants less than a month ago.

As a result of this development, fear has gripped the dwellers and most have vacated the community.

When a PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited the community, a graveyard silence was observed as one could barely see a person to speak with.

A passerby who identified himself as Raheem told our reporter that ”he cannot afford to wait to speak with our reporter for five minutes as he was only was there to pick some of his clothes and return to hiding”.

“My brother, may you not be unfortunate in your life, I cannot wait to speak to you, We can only continue to speak like this, the way people are being killed here is unexplainable and I don’t want to die.”

When asked what he thought could be the reason for the recent killings, Mr Raheem retorted “Haaa, you are asking too many questions” and he fled toward his house shouting, ”please go back, stop following me.”

Contacted, Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the command has been assuring the residents to return to their homes as “the police are on top of the situation”.

“We have been trying our best in speaking to the residents that we are on top of the matter, despite our promise of adequate protection, they have all abandoned their houses.”

When asked about the efforts made to arrest the assailants, he said, “I can assure you we will arrest them all, in fact, we are closing up on them. They have no hiding place in Ogun here. We would bring them all to book soonest.”

Self-proclaimed king?

On Thursday, the Owu Kingdom of Egbaland, under whose jurisdiction Agodo community falls, issued a statement questioning the legitimacy of Mr Odetola’s kingship.

The Akogun Owu, Ishola Akinsipo, said the land dispute in the community had caused bad blood between Mr Odetola and people of the community.

He dismissed claims that the violence was triggered by a rift between Owu and Ake on who has authority to install a king in the village.

“The insinuation is far from the truth as on no occasion has the Agodo community, with a Baale, contested or applied to Olowu or Alake Egba for the uplifting of their Baale to coronet,” Mr Akinsipo said.

“From time immemorial, Agodo village which has been a multi-clan community from Abeokuta had been in peace until some six years ago when some hoodlums besieged the environment to grab the community’s land.

“Reports available at our disposal in Owu Kingdom indicate the man who claimed to be Oba in Agodo village had been involved in land disputes with Agodo people which had caused bad blood among him, accompanied hoodlums and the Agodo community.”

The statement recalled that the community was thrown into crisis in 2016 following an alleged attempt by the deceased and some thugs to bury a corpse in Agodo village as a decoy to establish ancestry to the land.

“By the directive of Olowu Kangunere, Oba Olusanya Adegboyega Dosunmu, Olowu of Owu, Oba Olufemi Ogunleye, Towulade Akinale, was deployed to visit Agodo village and ensure there was peace. The report of a meditative meeting in Agodo, suing for peace and co-existence of the community was published in a news magazine, The Village Network, vol. 3 No 5 (2016).”

“The Agodo community as of today has denied their knowledge of any king, and the deceased monarch has no physical presence nor a palace in Agodo,” the statement added.