Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has expressed his displeasure on the way the police handled investigation into the killing of Dr Fatai Aborode, saying the needful had yet to be done.
Aborode, a frontline commercial farmer and former House of Representatives candidate of the Social Democratic Party in 2015, was allegedly murdered in cold blood by suspected gunmen on December 11 while returning home from his farm.
His death, among other issues, eventually led to the quit notice given to Seriki Fulani in Igangan, Salihu Abdukadir, whose properties were razed by some angry mob.
The governor, in an interview on the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State on Saturday, expressed the shock that the police failed to arrest and interrogate some persons who were present on the day when hoodlums killed Aborode.
Governor Makinde, who said he visited Aborode’s dad during an on-the-spot assessment visit to Igangan and other parts in Ibarapaland, stated that the old man told him that the killing of his son had political undertone.
“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 (Friday) they told me that they had arrested the person and what I heard is that the persons said that he would mention everyone of them who was there,” he said.
The governor also warned those posting fake news on the social media to in a bid to cause panic and to derail his administration to be careful.
He said his administration could not be derailed by anybody stressing that God and the people of the state were solidly behind and because they were responsible for his emergence as governor
