Land Grabbing: Victims Tell Court How Monarch Allegedly Attack Them
Mr Muritala Alimi, an indigene of Aagba village in the Surulere area of Oyo State has narrated to an Oyo State High Court, in Ogbomoso, the brutality and victimisation meted on him by agents of the Oloko of Oko, Oba Solomon Akinola.
Alimi said he nearly lost his life when the monarch allegedly ordered his agents to cut off the tendon of his left heel.
Alimi, a motorcyclist, was testifying in a case of attempted murder, assault, robbery and land grabbing instituted against Akinola, the Oloko of Oko, and 14 others.
According to the witness, he was conveying carpenters who were working at various sites in Tropical Culture Farm at Aagba with his Boxer motorcycle when he was attacked by people believed to be working on the orders of the traditional ruler.
He identified Timothy Aderinto, Matthew Paimo, and Sheriff Adam, among others, who are now at large, as those who carried out the attack.
Alimi said the defendants broke his arm and hit him with clubs on his head.
He further said that the injury caused him to bleed through his left ear, adding that they also robbed him of his two mobile phones worth N8,000 and N4,000 respectively, both totalling N12,000.
He added that Alimi, Aderinto, Paimo and Adam later took him to Oloko’s palace where the royal father directed them to break his arms completely, an action which, he said, left his arm broken.
The witness also identified Chiefs Jimoh Asimiyu and Sunday Aderinto among the people in the palace with the oba.
In her own testimony, one Mrs Funmilayo Olaniyan said on May 10, 2021, a group of men, heavily armed with guns, machetes and axes, claiming to have been sent by Oloko, invaded the Aagba community.
Olaniyan also identified Paimo, Aderinto and Adam who were among the defendants in the dock.
