The Ajeniju of Halleluyah Community in Osun State, Oba Jelili Olaiya, has narrated how some hoodlums laid siege on his palace and injured four people last Friday.
Oba Olaiya during the incident sustained bodily injury, while part of his palace was also vandalised by the protesters.
Olaiya, in an exclusive chat with TheNigerian Metro on Sunday, said he was still on admission in a hospital, where he was taken, after the attack by the youths who accused him of installing an Imam within the Ido Osun community, without the permission of Chief Imam of the community.
The monarch, who said about 18 police operatives and personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps were at his palace when the hoodlums launched the attack, said his wife and two other people were injured in the process.
Denying appointing an Imam within the Ido Osun Community, Oba Olaiya, who said he had not even built a mosque, added that, his own community is known as Halleluyah Area, and it is separate from Ido Osun.
Narrating how the incident happened, Olaiya said, “The place where the Ajeniju installed an Imam is not on Ido-Osun land. It is in front of my palace. I didn’t install an Imam on Ido-Osun land. The installation was done in front of my place where we also observed the Jumat prayer that day.
“The newly installed Imam had already led one Jumat prayer for us. It was during the following Friday (last Friday) when we were preparing for the Jumat around 11:00 a.m. that the hoodlums came around. That day, some officers came to my palace before those thugs arrived.
“The officers said it was the Divisional Police Officer in Ido-Osun who sent them. Later, the DPO came around and told me he was hearing rumours that I installed an Imam and built a new mosque.
“I told him we didn’t build a new mosque and that we had our Jumat prayer in front of my palace. He said the Chief Imam of Ido-Osun complained that we ought to have come to him for approval, and I replied to the DPO that I was not on Ido-Osun’s land.
“The police were there when we were attacked. The police officers were from Ido-Osun and the state Anti-Kidnapping units, as well as officers from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, numbering about 18.”
He called for reinforcement of security in the area to prevent further breakdown of peace and appealed for calm to allow the government find a solution to the issue that led to the crisis.
He further said, “I was not the only person that those thugs attacked. My wife, one of my chiefs, Mayowa George, as well as, one of our most senior clerics called Alfa Agba, were seriously injured.”
Efforts to get the Osun State Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ reaction to the claim by Oba Olaiya failed as calls to the spokespersons for the two security agencies, Yemisi Opalola and Kehinde Adeleke, respectively did not go through.
The two officers had not also responded to text messages sent to them by our correspondent as of the time of filing this report.
