OYO: Aborode not killed by herdsmen, says Makinde

* Governor says late politician’s death politically motivated

GOVERNOR Seyi Makinde has said the police are not showing due diligence in their handling of the  murder of Dr Fatai Aborode, who was killed by gunmen in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of the state.

Makinde said contrary to the narrative being circulated in public, Aborode was not killed by Fulani herdsmen.

The governor said the father of Aborode told him that his son’s death had political undertone.

He said this while featuring on BCOS this morning.

The governor expressed surprise that the police did not arrest and interrogate some persons who were present when hoodlums killed Aborode on the fateful day.

He said his position on the late academic cum politician was informed by what Aborode’s father told him during his visit to Igangan to assess the security situation in the town and other areas in Ibarapaland.

He stressed the grief-stricken father of Aborode insisted that his son was allegedly killed by political opponent and not herdsmen.

Aborode, who was the House of Representatives candidate of the Social Democratic Party in 2015, was killed by suspected gunmen on December 11, 2020, while returning home from his farm.

The killing among other issues eventually led to the quit notice given to Seriki Fulani in Igangan, Salihu Abdukadir whose properties were razed by some Ibarapa youth.

Aborode, who had a large farm with many youth employed to earn their livelihoods, returned from ‘abroad’ to supervise the situation on his farm when he was attacked and killed.

Makinde said, “Oyo State is not a jungle, we must find a way to get to the root of the matter (Aborode’s killing). I went to Ibarapa and I slept over to know what the situation was. I went to Dr Aborode’s biological father and some of the things we found out were that the death was also caused by failure of intelligence.

“Everybody said Fulani killed Dr Aborode but when I went to his father, he said what happened had political undertone. He also told me that Dr Aborode did not drive himself to the farm (on the day he was killed), he was taken on a bike by somebody. When they were coming back from the farm, those who killed him picked him from the motorcycle and the rider left the motorcycle and came home to seek for help. But there was no single scratch on his body, he was not even pinched.

“Some persons were also coming from the farm who were also stopped and these ones heard the conversations between Dr Aborode and those who killed him. I asked where are those people and they said they were in Igangan with the person who carried him in the motorcycle.

“Okay, those who killed him, what language were they (the killers and Aborode) speaking? They said they heard that they spoke in Yoruba. When I returned to Ibadan, I called the security agencies and asked them if they heard what I just heard. They said they had interviewed the people. And I asked what did you now do to them? They could not say anything. And I told the Commissioner of Police that those people must be arrested and interrogated.

“Just yesterday, they told me that they had arrested the persons and what I heard is that the persons said that he would mention everyone of them who was there.”