Victor Akinkuolie Ado-Ekiti
\
Former Caretaker Chairman of Ikole Local Government area of Ekiti state, Mrs Funke Owoseni, at the weekend, narrowly escaped being murdered by yet to be identified suspected assassins.

The Hope Metro gathered that the assailants besieged her house located at Ijesha-Isu community, Ikole Local Government area of Ekiti state at about 8:30 pm.

However, Mrs Owoseni’s husband, Mr Paul Owoseni, was said not to be lucky, as the dare-devil men, who were armed with dangerous weapons,  attacked him with machete and chopped off  five of his fingers.

Mrs Owoseni, was also a former Women Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, during the first term of Governor Kayode Fayemi in the state,

Speaking with journalists on telephone in Ado Ekiti at the weekend, Mrs Owoseni said when the assailants stormed her house along Ikole road at about 8.30pm on the fateful day, they turned off the generating set outside, which turned the well lit environment  into total blackout.

She described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt by those,  who according to her,  had  already been revealed to the police during their visit to the scene of the incident around 11pm on the day the attack occurred.

She said while some students leaving  with  her  were about  restoring light to the building, the bandits swooped on them and started requesting  for where she (Mrs Owoseni) was.

“When the light went off, we suspected  that the generating set was still running outside and we asked those students living with us to go out and check what was happening.

“Few minutes later, we heard them saying please save us, save us  and my husband who was not with torch light rushed out to see what was happening. The impression we first heard was a case of electrocution. While my husband rushed out to save the situation, I tried to get my torchlight to be able to see clearly.

“Shortly, the voices changed and I started hearing thief, thief, thief. But my husband was already in their midst with those children. But because I went with torchlight, I was able to see them and I had to rush back inside and hid myself somewhere.

“They brought my husband inside and started asking, where is your wife? We are here for her and not you. When he didn’t tell them where I was, they started macheting him with dangerous weapons and they did that until they chopped up his fingers. Thereafter, they fled when they saw that he had passed  out,” she stated.

Mrs Owoseni said they immediately took her husband to General hospital to stabilize him before he was referred to Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital(EKSUTH) for intensive medicare.

“From EKSUTH, we were referred to Federal Teaching Hospital , Ido Ekiti and now we are in a private hospital in Abuja, where my husband is receiving treatment.

“I see no reason why someone would want to kill me for raising my voice against injustice in the running of our party. I had given the names of those I suspected to the police for investigation,”she said.

Confirming the report of the matter, the  Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Police Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, said the case has not been officially reported at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti.

Ikechukwu said,”I have not been properly briefed by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area. 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 am going to contact our men  at the Criminal Investigation Department(CID) to know  how far they have gone about the case,”he said.