The Alara of Ara –Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba,the only monarch who survived the attack by kidnappers has said the grace of God saw him through the ordeal and not supernatural powers, as being speculated.
Though, Oba Fatoba admitted that the barrage of bullets fired at him by the hoodlums did penetrate through his body,however expressed sadness that his other colleagues monarchs were not so lucky.
Oba Fatoba described his late colleagues as equally brave leaders who sacrificed their lives for the peace of their communities and Ekiti State in general.
According to Alara, the three monarchs put up a fight with the kidnappers before they were overpowered with superior fire arms.
He said the deafening sounds of guns could not allow the local hunters to near the scene of the attack.
Narrating his ordeal, Alara said “We have about 25 communities in Ikole and there was a security Committee which I am the chairman and one of the deceased monarchs was the Vice chairman.”
“There has been repeated attacks by herders on farmers in our areas because we have large forests here.So when the attack was becoming too frequent on our people we sought permission from the Police to intervene and the permit was granted.”
“So ,when received another report of an attack by herders where one of our people was killed between Ayebode and Ayedun, we decided to move in .We had visited the community where incident happened. We were discussing the issue of late Onimojo , an associate Professor who was planning to move from Federal University of Technology (FUTA) to Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) on our back along Irele when these herders appeared from no where.
“We never knew they many, because about three of them pointed guns at us. We tried to struggle with them but they began to fire at us from different directions. Though , the bullets did not enter but I realized that they fully armed with sophisticated weapons and break away from scene surges forward to check point mounted by our local hunters.
“But seeing the high grade fire arms and sporadic gunshots, they couldn’t advance. I even asked one of our local hunters to return fire but his Dane gun could not work .By the time I looked back, I saw my colleagues Oba in the pool of their own bloods. It was a very sad experience, my colleagues monarchs sacrificed their lives and died for their people. I would admit that the bullets did not penetrate through my body but I did not disappear, as being speculated.” Oba Fatoba said.
•INDEPENDENTNG.