From Jimoh Ahmed, IkareAkoko
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The ancient town of Arigidi Akoko in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State was on Friday thrown into pandemonium as a middle aged man, Prince Akeem Olanipekun was allegedly beaten to death with a charmed ring during a fight at Imo quarters of the town.

According to an eyewitness accounts, the late Akeem, a father of two  who hails from the ruling Olanipekun royal family of Ayase quarters of Arigidi was a commercial driver.

He was said to have accompanied his friend who owns a rental service outfit to erect canopy on Friday at Imo quarters of the town for a social party when the fight started.

The Hope Metro reliably gathered that the deseased, was approached by some miscreants popularly known as “area boys” for the payment of ‘land money’ known as “Owo-Ile” in local parlance before the canopies could be erected.

This was said to have led to a hot argument between the deceased and the boys who went home and brought a charm to beat him for not meeting their demand.

The area boys reportedly beat him with the charm, which led to his death on the spot.

As a result of this, the atmosphere of the whole of Arigidi Akoko  reportedly became tension soaked for the fear of possible reprisal attack from the family of the late Prince who hailed from a royal family.

At Imo Arigidi, the house of the principal suspect was deserted as the body of the deceased was placed in front of the building, while neighbours were also living in fear of being arrested by security agents for offence they did not commit.

Meanwhile, men of the Nigerian Police Force from Okeagbe Akoko led by the Divisional police office DPO, SP Adetanranmi Ibitayo, have been deployed to forestall further conflict, while the alleged perpetrators were said to be at large.

The Area Commander of the Force for Ikare Akoko command, ACP Razak Rauf confirmed the incident and promised to arrest all the perpetrators of the criminal act.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the corpse was later taken to the mortuary of State Specialist Hospital, Ikare Akoko for further investigations.

As of press time, the Zaki of Arigidi-Akoko could not be reached for comments as calls put through to him were not picked, while people close to him said he was very sad over the incident.