Politically-motivated Killings In Ila-Orangun, Osogbo, Ilesa Wicked, Worrisome
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has bemoaned the introduction of the brazen extra-judicial killings to the political theatre of the state suspected to have been orchestrated by some desperate and disgruntled politicians whose mission is to scare away the opposition with violence and create non-level playing ground for the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
It would be recalled that the similar style was used by the then Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in 2022 with the resultant effect of the gruesome murder of 30 members and supporters of the APC across the state out of which no fewer than 17 of them were brutally killed by the PDP hoodlums in the Ijesaland area of the state alone.
Surprisingly on Friday shortly after the superlative 87th birthday anniversary of former Governor Bisi Akande in Ila-Orangun, another bizzaire gruesome murder of a member of the APC in the ancient town, took place.
The victim, Mr. Lateef Ajitoba, was the driver to Alhaji Rasheed Adeniji, the Osun State APC Assistant Organising Secretary, who doubles as one of the personal aides of Chief Akande. Ajitoba who was very active during the birthday anniversary, was released by his boss to go home for a deserving rest.
Members of the household who got in touch with Ajitoba’s boss through telephone calls when the father of the house did not show up in the house were surprised that he had been released the previous evening. The effort of a search party later revealed that the mangled body of Ajitoba with several axe cuts on his body, was discovered inside a gutter at the Oke-Ogbun, Osogbo Road, Ila-Orangun.
All the efforts of the members of the family of the deceased to identify his killer proved abortive but it was believed to be a political killing based on the timing and the place it occured which was the very day that the members and chieftains of the APC political family trooped to the ancient town of Ila-Orangun from across the country to honour their revered leader, who was the maiden national chairman of the APC.
As if that was enough, the peace of Osogbo was temporarily put into confusion on Sunday evening when the news of the gruesome murder of one Mr Kazeem Oyebamiji, former unit chairman of the Osun State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers(NURTW), filtered in.
The sight of the lifeless body of Oyebamiji as shown in the trending social media was gory as he was stripped naked, had his bleeding head broken ostensibly by hard objects and also lying in a gutter.
It was gathered that the suspected killers of Oyebamiji are close to the source of power in the state and have been on the police wanted list for some of the past political killings. Information also has it that the suspects are taking the undue advantage of both the immunity and fortification of the state government abode to evade arrest.
It would also be recalled that on the 27th November, 2025, a leader of the NURTW in the state, an apologist of the APC, Mr. Adeboye Ademoroti, was neutralised by some yet-to-be identified assailants at Olomilagbala area of Ilesa.
We condemn in its entirety the suspected extra-judicial political killings reminiscent of the 2022 and 2023 unsavoury episodes currently going on in the state as they portend a great danger to the public peace and tranquility in the state capable of threatening the democratic machinery.
The police and all other statutory security services should beef up their professional strategies with a view to bringing the culprits and their sponsors to book for justice to take its cause.
The reactionary elements who are thinking that the forthcoming governorship election in the state could be won through violence like that of 2022 should have a rethink as the proverbial snake of yesterday has since ported to another place.
e-SIGNED:
Mogaji KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.
