Traditional Chief Killed on His Farm in Ekiti

The Ekiti State Police Command has said that a senior traditional chief in Ijero Ekiti Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Adewole Ajayi was murdered on his farm on Friday.

The police said the high chief, popularly known as Iroko Ekiti, was suspected to have been murdered inside the farm, located at a neighbouring town, Oke-Oro, also in Ijero Ekiti Local Government Area.

The spokesman of the Police Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu said a suspect, Dele Ojo-Aro, has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Ikechukwu said that said preliminary reports showed that the suspect had been a long time notorious thief, terrorising farms in recent times.

“I can confirm to you that the suspect had earlier been reported for stealing from farms.

” We were reliably informed that he indeed went to the farm to steal the deceased’s yam and in an attempt to get him apprehended, he shot him in the hips with the dane gun he was carrying,” Ikechukwu said.

Oba Sunday Ekundayo, the traditional ruler of the community, while confirming the incident, said the suspect is a native of a neighouring town of Odo Oro Ekiti.

NAN gathered that the senior chief had gone to the farm early in the day and allegedly found his assailant on his farm stealing yams.

A source said both the victim and the suspected assailant had their farms along the same route but that Ajayi went to the farm at about 6a.m. and found his killer on the farm.

“It was in an attempt to arrest him that the suspect shot him with a dane gun in the hips and disappeared.

“But when the chief did not return home in normal time and the news of his death began to filter out, people started probing into those that went to farm early and that was how some people testified that the suspect was seen going to the farm.

“People started suspecting him from there,” the source said.