• Says cult members determined to assassinate him
• ‘My younger brother among my tormentors’
He looked worried and agitated. The numerous fans that worked simultaneously to mitigate the suffocating heat in the sprawling hall were in their highest gears, yet he was sweating and intermittently wiping the sweat on his face.
There was every reason for the paramount ruler Odo-Ayandelu Kingdom, Ikosi-Ejinrin Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Epe Division, Lagos State, Oba Asumon Ganiyu Aderibigbe, Jamade 1 to be worried. Besides the monarch’s life being constantly under threat, peace has also eluded his community, courtesy of a gang of cult members who have made it a duty to harass the residents of the community.
Only recently, the monarch nearly lost his life as the daredevil hoodlums came calling.
“I am calling to let the people of the world, Lagos State, and Nigeria know of an attempt on life by some cultists, thugs and hoodlums living in Odo-Ayandelu,” the 61-year-old paramount ruler told our reporter.
While there had been several attacks on the 600-year-old community in the past, he said the attack in February 2023 was worrisome because it took another dimension.
His present predicament had begun at about 8.30 pm on February 18, 2023, when he decided to intervene in a matter that could cause breach of the peace of the community.
Oba Aderibigbe said: “I received a call that some people were harassing traders, compelling them to take the old notes which had ceased to be a legal tender.”
Before then, The Nation gathered, officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had come to the palace with some money for people to swap their notes.
“But the guys never came there to swap any money. They just wanted to foment trouble and cause disturbance in the community. None of them came out to exchange money.”
Unknown to the monarch, his intervention infuriated some of the hoodlums who were bent on carrying out their criminal act.
While he succeeded in finding out those who were responsible for the disruption of trading activities in his domain, he decided to go the second day to broker peace between the traders and the alleged ‘hoodlums’.
Having found out that one Jagun was the leader of the ‘boys’ the previous day, he thought that brokering peace was going to be easy. How wrong.
The monarch said: “So early in the morning on the 19th, I decided to take a little rest due to the medication I took. It was later that my wife came to wake me up that I had to come out that things were happening in the town; that the boys were on the rampage.
“I met some of them on the way and asked them what happened but they did not even answer me.
“I went to the scene and saw th at they had set up bonfire on the road. They also blocked the road for those that were coming from the Sagamu end of the road, asking travelers to turn back while those coming from the Lagos end were also turned back.”
He told The Nation that this caused serious commotion as people were running helter skelter.
“Everywhere was scattered. All the shops were locked and economic activities were paralysed in the community,” the monarch said.
In order to nip the crisis in the bud, he tried to put out the bonfires that had been set up in many parts of the town, with the assistance of other members of the community.
The monarch’s effort paid off as he did not only put out the fire, he was also able to apprehend two of the ‘boys’.
“I asked them what prompted them to do what they did; that they ought to have considered others and the people travelling or probably going for medical attention.”
Unfortunately, some people came and said that the ‘boys’ should be released. “I stood my ground that we were not going to release them but hand them over to the police.
“From nowhere, one Baruwa came out and started breaking bottles in front of me. The particles of the broken bottles inflicted injuries on some people.”
The monarch stood his ground in the hope of stopping the crisis and the ‘boys’ eventually left the scene. Unknown to the monarch, however, the boys had gone to regroup for a deadlier attack.
He said: “One of the ‘boys’ returned to the scene with a gun, corked the gun, threatened me and people started scampering into safety.
“The people of the town told me to leave the scene but I said no, that if I should do that it means I’m a coward and I want to endanger the lives of other people in the community.”
As the crisis was going on, Oba Aderibigbe had put a call through to the Nigerian Police Headquarters at Agbowa and the CP special Squad at Imota.
They were said to have all responded swiftly, but when the ‘boys’ sighted the police, they escaped, running into the bush.
The monarch is worried that the hoodlums were getting too bold every day.
also He told our correspondent that the hoodlums threatened to assassinate him.
He identified the leader of the gang as one Kazeem.
“Qudus was the one that brought out the gun. Others are Makinde, Segun and another guy from Ijebu Igbo who has dreadlocks, I don’t know his name, and some others.”
The Nation gathered that though the police were able to arrest two of the boys who after interrogation, confessed to have participated in the violence, they denied being part of those that threatened Oba Aderibigbe with a gun.
“The police have promised to take those two to court. That is where we are now. But it is only God and the intervention of other community members that saved my life that day.”
The monarch said the February incident was just one of the violent activities of the hoodlums in the community.
Recalling one of the past incidents, he said he never had any running battle with anybody in the town.
He said: “Sometime about two years ago or more, something of such happened. They were fighting each other and were trying to stab one boy with broken bottle.
“The boy ran into the palace compound for safety but these guys followed him into the compound.
“They were breaking bottles just the way they did that day. In fact, part of the bottle injured me and I called the Nigerian police.
“They came and made an arrest, but you know the way people behave in Nigeria.
“The DPO then, released them without my consent.
“I registered my displeasure that such a thing happened in my palace, you arrested them and allowed them to go. That it is very bad.
“Not even an undertaking from them that they would not do that again. He was just begging me.
“Also, sometime around August when I wanted to mark my 60th birthday, the same thing happened. They were fighting each other and scattering the whole community.
“I had to call all of them and warned them, and they promised that such a thing would not happen again.
“I don’t have a grudge with any of them. They are just being rascally and because of the cultism that entered their head; that is why they are misbehaving”
The monarch told The Nation that the February incident would have snowballed into something else if his security detail had followed him to the scene of the violence.
He said: “I have a policeman attached to me. In fact, I have to thank God that I used my wisdom that day when I was going out.
“I thought it was just a mere thing, not knowing that it was serious.
“So the policeman was eating at the gate and requested to follow me and I told him not to worry.
“The policeman called me again and asked if he should come and meet me. Then, it had not really turned into violence. I told him not to worry.
“Why I said I thank God for the wisdom God gave me is that if my orderly was there, he would have been provoked to shoot. He would have shot anybody and they would say it was Kabiyesi’s police that shot them.
“That was why I called the CP’s Special Squad at Imota and the Police Headquarters at Agbowa.”
The monarch would probably have wielded the big stick by banishing troublemakers from his community, but he does not have the constitutional power to do so.
The Nation gathered that while the police have been doing their best to get the ‘boys’ in question arrested, it has been very difficult to track them down.
It was gathered that even the two that were arrested, the vigilante group was used to track them down.
“It was the vigilantes that busted into their houses, brought them out and handed them over to the police.
“It would have been difficult to get them because they have informants. The police are trying their best,” the monarch said.
The way forward
Asked the way out of the crisis, he said: “I am calling on the state government and at the same time the CP, the DSS and other security agents to come to Odo-Ayandelu’s aide because these people are becoming a threat to the entire people of the community.
“Some of them are indigenes and some are non-indigenes. One of them is even my own brother. We have the same father; the one that led the crisis.
“One of them had been arrested before by the Special Squad in Imota. He confessed that he was a cultist and they told him to go and renounce his membership.
“Since he said he was not part of them again, they told him to do an affidavit and bring it back to them. I don’t know whether he has done that.”