The recent killing of Oba Olusegun Aremu-Cole, the Olukoro of Koro in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, by yet to be identified gun-men was hatched in a beer parlour, in the town.
Oba Aremu-Cole, a retired senior military officer, was shot dead on Thursday night by the assailants, who invaded his palace, and his wife and two natives who live near the palace were whisked away to an unknown destination.
The PUNCH report that the killers also lured a salesgirl at the pub to lead them to the palace, which is located in the area.
Quoting a source in the town, the newspaper gathered that when the assailants arrived in the town on Thursday evening, they settled in the pub to take some drinks.
The source stated, “After spending several hours at the relaxation centre and being good customers t, they now asked the salesgirl to lead them to the palace to pay obeisance to the monarch and discuss the progress of the town.
“The girl ignorantly led the three men to the palace to see the monarch and went back to continue her work at the joint.”
Another native of Koro, Funsho Akorede, said the monarch had just returned from a journey and was relaxing when the gunmen attacked him.
He added that following the killing, a team of soldiers had been dispatched to comb forests in Kwara and neighbouring Kogi and Ekiti states to smoke out the assailants.
The immediate junior brother to the monarch, Mr Adelaja Aremu, on Friday, narrated how gunmen killed the Oba.
Adelaja, who spoke in a telephone interview with Saturday PUNCH, noted that the assailants shot his brother dead for refusing to follow their orders to stand up and come with them.
He said, “I am his immediate younger brother and I live very close to the village. Immediately gunshots were heard in the palace, I was contacted and told the gunshots.
“They (gunmen) came into the palace and met him (the monarch) and asked him to stand up. They wanted to abduct him. He refused to get up, saying that nobody could command him like that. He refused to take orders from unknown people, so they shot in the air to scare him but he wasn’t afraid.
“Of course, they knew that they met a stubborn person and that was how they shot him. This was what the houseboy told us. He (houseboy) bolted out of the palace through the back door when my brother was shot, but he saw all that transpired.”
When asked if the family had been contacted over the abduction of the monarch’s wife and the two other abductees, Adelaja stated, “The other two who were kidnapped are our neighbours because I live in the palace too anytime I am around. I can’t disclose whether or not the kidnappers have contacted anyone, but we hope that the police will do their work.”
Adelaja disclosed that this was not the first time bandits had terrorised residents of the town.
He added, “For me, I think it’s the peculiar nature of our location. I try to farm at home and these bandits have been raiding our community and I have been calling the attention of the authorities to my encounters with them.
“When I had my first encounter with the bandits, I reported to the police but nothing happened. The second time I had an encounter with them, I informed the police again. Even when the All Progressives Congress women leader was killed by bandits during electioneering, the governor came to see the late monarch, but nothing changed after he left.
“These bandits have camped themselves in certain areas and we are at their mercy because we don’t have people to speak for us. None of our people go to their farms anymore because bandits will go to farms and kill people.
“When they first raided my farm, they rustled the cattle in my ranch. I restocked and they returned in May last year and rustled 74 of my cattle again. They also attacked the man I hired to tend them and left him for dead on the farm.”
Meanwhile, the abductors have demanded the payment of N100m for the monarch’s wife and the other persons kidnapped in Koro.
A family member of the monarch told Saturday PUNCH on Friday night that the abductors also gave a 48-hour deadline within which the money must be paid or they would kill the victims.
“They are asking for N100m ransom. They have said the money must be ready in 48 hours,” the source said.
