Ekiti ex-Commissioner escapes assassination

• Assailants Chop Off Husband’s Fingers
Former Commissioner of Women Affairs in Ekiti State, Mrs. Funke Owoseeni, on Thursday escaped being killed by gunmen who besieged her house at Ijesa Isu in Ikole Council of the state.

But her husband, Paul Owoseeni, was not that lucky, as the men attacked him with machete and chopped off five of his fingers.

Mrs. Owoseeni served as commissioner under Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s administration between 2010 and 2014. She was also the caretaker chairman of Ikole Council and women leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti.

Speaking with journalists via telephone in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, she said the assailants stormed her house along Ikole road about 8.30pm and turned off the power generating set outside, causing total blackout.

The attack, she alleged, is motivated by those who had already been revealed to the police during their visit to the scene of the incident around 11pm that day.

She said while some students living with her were trying to restore light to the building, the bandits swooped on them.

“When the light went off, we suspected that the generating set was still running outside and we asked some 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 torchlight, rushed out to see what was happening. We thought it was a case of electrocution. While my husband rushed out to save the situation, I tried to get my torchlight.

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

“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 stared cutting him with dangerous weapons until they chopped up his fingers. They fled when they saw that he had passed out,” she explained.

The former commissioner said her husband was immediately taken to the general hospital to stabilise before he was referred to Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) for intensive care.

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

“I don’t know 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.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ekiti division, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, the case has not been incidented at the police headquarters in Ado-Ekiti.