Find My Secretary's Killers Within 14 Days, Oshiomhole Tells Police
...How He Was Murdered
BENIN, May 04, (THEWUILL) - Edo State governor, Adams Oshimhole has issued a 14-fay ultimatum to the Nigeria Police, to unravel the identities of killers of his principal private secretary, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde who was gunned down in his residence in the early hours of Friday.
“I am giving the Police 14 days from today to produce the killers of Olaitan and to ascertain the killings of Olatunji Jacob, Fidelis Ohani and George Okosun,” said Oshiomhole, who led protesters of Olaitan’s death through the streets of Benin. “If they do not do that, as the chief security officer of this state, I reserve all my options. This country will either fail or stand; nobody can intimidate us.”
Oshiomhole also vowed not to succumb to the opposition’s alleged strategy of intimidating his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the lead-up to the Edo State governorship elections.
“Out of power, I was not intimidated, so I cannot be intimated today. I ask you to go home peacefully, resist the temptation to take laws into your hands and resist the temptation of wanting to fight them today. The Police must produce those killers,” he said.
“Last week, they plotted to kill their enemy; they succeeded in killing Okosun; they succeeded in killing Fidelis; they also succeeded in killing Olatunji Jacob. Last night, they killed Olaitan; but let it be clear that they cannot kill our fighting spirit. I have told the Police, if they do not find the killers, if they do not do proper investigation of the killings of those journalists and of Olaitan last night, as the governor of Edo State, I will provide the leadership for my people to find solution to insecurity. I offer my blood; they must not fight like cowards and let us engage face to face.”
Revealing that Olaitan’s killing was to destabilise the ACN in its preparation for the elections, Oshiomhole vowed to fight on. He also said he had earlier informed the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olayinka Balogun of a certain meeting where an evaluation of the election was carried out, and intimidations and eliminations were agreed as the methods to be adopted in displacing ACN from its grip over the state.
“Last week, they succeed in killing three journalists. Last night, they killed Olaitan. Let me be clear, they cannot kill my fighting spirit. They agreed at the meeting that it is impossible for them to win the election,” he said,
“They also resolved at the meeting to intimidate my person and if possible eliminate me. At that meeting, they said they will kill, under the guise of armed robbery, many of my personal staff and key leaders. I also informed the Police that they resolved that several weeks before the election, they will detonate bombs in parts of the state in order to scare people away from going to vote. What is our crime? Our crime is that we have mobilised our people, we have deployed public resources for the public good and the godfather is angry.”
Ashiomhole also said, “The blood of these young men will fire me on to fight and defeat them. There is no going back. They have killed my son. They have killed my brother, they have killed my people but they cannot kill my spirit. Last night, like cowards, they shot Olaitan in the chest, head and belly to make sure he never survives.
“I want to serve them notice. I have the capacity and the men. If they do not behave, we can stop them from coming to Edo State. Let me say I have not come to cry today. The blood of those young men will wet my appetite for justice because their plan is to postpone again for the second time our campaign.
“Tomorrow, we will go ahead because Olaitan in his lifetime was a fighter. We met in the field of struggle not on the dining table. I ask you not to be afraid and not to be intimidated. Don’t give up. If anything, we should be more resolved.”
Meanwhile, details of Olaitan’s murder in his residence on Second Ugbor Road, GRA, indicate that four gunmen scaled the fence and gained entry into his compound at about 1.30 am, tied the security man, Ali Alhadi, with his wife’s scarf and covered his face with another cloth.
In an interaction with journalists, Alhadi revealed that he was pushed back into his room, while three of the gunmen gained entry to the house through the front gate that was not locked; the last man stayed outside, near the window of the deceased’s bedroom. Oyerinde was said to be sleeping in the sitting room when the assailants first entered his brother-in-law’s bedroom, and later his wife’s. He was said to have been shot through the window.
“They pretended to be on a robbery mission. After some time, I heard gun shots, two gun shots,” Alhadi said. “It was the wife who came to report the incident at the station. They took their phones and the car keys, including that belonging to the brother, who was on a visit.”
In his reaction to the murder, the Commissioner of Police, Balogun, said that his men were already after Olaitan’s killers, and promised to bring them to book.