By Hardball
Who killed Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the National leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti? Reports say “gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen” killed the 58-year-old woman on July 12 in Ondo State.
Police spokesman in the state, Femi Joseph, said: “Three vehicles were ambushed by gunmen at Kajola on the Benin-Ore Expressway around 2pm. One woman named Funmi Olakunrin was shot but died before our men could take her to the hospital. The woman (deceased) was travelling in a Toyota Jeep. One man in another Toyota Camry Car was abducted by the gunmen. Our men have rescued seven men travelling in the commercial bus belonging to Young Shall Grow Motors Limited. We have begun search for the man that was abducted and to get the hoodlums.”
But spokesman for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said: “We have confirmed the death of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, (daughter of our leader, Chief Fasoranti). Eyewitness accounts say she died of gunshots from Fulani herdsmen who shot her at Ore junction in Ondo State earlier today. She was coming from Akure when the armed Fulani herdsmen came from the bush to attack her and other vehicles. Her domestic staff in the car with her also sustained gunshot wounds. This is one death too many and a clear we-can-take-it-no-more death.”
This killing is yet another case that shows the high level of insecurity in the country. It heightens the controversy over the Federal Government’s plan to implement its herders’ settlement project, called Ruga settlements, which has been suspended.
A kidnapping in May had corroborated information that Fulani herdsmen were engaged in other things in the country’s South-west. An orthopaedic surgeon at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof Olayinka Adegbehingbe, was kidnapped on the Ife-Ibadan Expressway.
Adegbehingbe had said: “The Federal Government needs to invest more in security; we need to know the identity of people coming in and going out of the town, state and the country at large. The people who abducted me were Fulani herdsmen and they had four guns and multiple rounds of ammunition as well as other weapons.” He paid N5.045m before he was freed.
Whether or not Olakunrin was killed by herders, the killers must be found by the police. The herders’ question remains unresolved and compounded by instances of violence attributed to them. Olakunrin’s killing is an additional reason why the authorities should tackle insecurity with greater seriousness.
The Nation
