Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, has accused some insider collaborators of colluding with criminals in burning his house in Ibadan the Oyo State capital.
His house located in Soka area, of Oyo State, was gutted in the early hours of Tuesday by a midnight fire lit by some yet unidentified criminals whom the police described as hoodlums.
Igboho told reporters in Ibadan on Tuesday: “Around 3:30 a.m., my younger brothers in the old house ran to me that some persons came with guns and were shooting and they set the place ablaze. By the time I got there, they have already (run) away.”
Accusing some of his kinsmen of collaborating with the arsonists, he said: “I did not expect Yoruba to be supporting herdsmen. They are killing our brothers and sisters. I am working to send them away but Yoruba are supporting them to set my house ablaze. I didn’t suspect anybody but I know some Yoruba have hands in it. Why didn’t they come to my house where I have my boys? If they had come to my house, you would have met their dead bodies.
“What got destroyed in the house worth were nothing less than N50 million. I learnt they came with five vehicles and my brothers there ran for their lives. Police had come to the place.”
The police, through the Oyo state command spokesman, Olugbenga Fadeyi, in a statement, said an investigation has been launched to examine what truly transpired.
“At about 0620 hrs of today 26/01/2021, report was received at Sanyo Police Station that some unidentified hoodlums came to Sunday Igboho’s house at SOKA area of Ibadan in a Hummer bus and Micra firing sporadically, and set the house ablaze.”
The development occurred a few days after Igboho led some youth and aggrieved residents to Igangan in Ibarapa area of Oyo State to eject the Fulani leader there, Salihu Abdukadir.
They accused Abdukadir of harbouring criminal herders who were kidnapping and killing residents of the community.
Some houses and cars were burnt during the eviction.
Abdukadir however denied the allegations. He explained that the Fulanis in the community have, in the past, also been victims of kidnaps and killings.
The police in a statement, said an investigation has been launched to examine what truly transpired.
“At about 0620 hrs of today 26/01/2021, report was received at Sanyo Police Station that some unidentified hoodlums came to Sunday Igboho’s house at SOKA area of Ibadan in a Hummer bus and Micra firing sporadically, and set the house ablaze.”
“The mini sitting room got burnt in the process while (the) amount of other properties is yet to be estimated. Immediately the DPO Sanyo got wind of the incident, he contacted Fire service while he also went to the scene for on the spot assessment. The fire was eventually put out. Investigation has commenced into the incident while the Police is on the trail of the hoodlums,” the statement said.
Earlier, the Director of Operation, Oyo State Fire Service, Ismail Adeleke, confirmed that it was only the living room and the corridor of the building that were affected by the fire, due to their timely intervention.
