Suspected assailants on Thursday night besieged the Ijesa-Isu Ekiti residence of a former commissioner in Ekiti State, Mrs Funke Owoseni.
Owoseni, who is also a former chairman of the local government caretaker committee, said the assailants stormed her house along Ikole Road at about 8.30pm and turned off their generator with a view to operating under the guise of darkness.
The former APC Women Leader said she was at home with her husband, Mr Paul Owoseni, and some students when the bandits, who chopped off his five fingers when they could not find her, came.
According to her, it was while the students were trying to restore electricity to the building that the bandits pounced on them and started requesting for her whereabouts.
Owoseni said, “When we had blackout, we suspected that the generator was still running outside so we asked the students living with us to check what was happening. A few minutes later, we heard them saying ‘please save us, save us’, then my husband, who was not with a torchlight rushed out to see what wrong.
We thought it was a case of electrocution. While my husband rushed out to see what was going on, I tried to get my torchlight to see clearly.
“Shortly, the voices changed and I started hearing ‘thief, thief, thief’ but because I went with a torchlight, I was able to see them and I rushed back inside and hid.
“They forced my husband to lead them inside and started asking, ‘where is your wife? We are here for her and not you’. When he didn’t show them where I was, they started cutting him with dangerous weapons and they did that until they chopped his fingers. They fled when they thought that he had passed out.”
She said that her husband was immediately rushed to a general hospital to stabilise him before he was referred to two teaching hospitals for intensive medical care.
Owoseni, who described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt, said, “I see no reason why someone would want to kill me for raising my voice against injustice in the running of our party.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, who said the case had not got to the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti, said: “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 will contact our men at the Criminal Investigation Department to know how far they have gone with the case.”
Owoseni, who is also a former chairman of the local government caretaker committee, said the assailants stormed her house along Ikole Road at about 8.30pm and turned off their generator with a view to operating under the guise of darkness.
The former APC Women Leader said she was at home with her husband, Mr Paul Owoseni, and some students when the bandits, who chopped off his five fingers when they could not find her, came.
According to her, it was while the students were trying to restore electricity to the building that the bandits pounced on them and started requesting for her whereabouts.
Owoseni said, “When we had blackout, we suspected that the generator was still running outside so we asked the students living with us to check what was happening. A few minutes later, we heard them saying ‘please save us, save us’, then my husband, who was not with a torchlight rushed out to see what wrong.
We thought it was a case of electrocution. While my husband rushed out to see what was going on, I tried to get my torchlight to see clearly.
“Shortly, the voices changed and I started hearing ‘thief, thief, thief’ but because I went with a torchlight, I was able to see them and I rushed back inside and hid.
“They forced my husband to lead them inside and started asking, ‘where is your wife? We are here for her and not you’. When he didn’t show them where I was, they started cutting him with dangerous weapons and they did that until they chopped his fingers. They fled when they thought that he had passed out.”
She said that her husband was immediately rushed to a general hospital to stabilise him before he was referred to two teaching hospitals for intensive medical care.
Owoseni, who described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt, said, “I see no reason why someone would want to kill me for raising my voice against injustice in the running of our party.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, who said the case had not got to the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti, said: “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 will contact our men at the Criminal Investigation Department to know how far they have gone with the case.”
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