An Amotekun operative identified as Samuel Tope has been killed during a bloody clash with a soldier in Ijeda Ijesa community of Osun State.
A source in Ijeda-Ijesa, who preferred anonymity to avoid being attacked, while speaking on the incident on Sunday, said the soldier, identified as Fiyinfoluwa Opejobi, an indigene of the community, had returned home to conclude his marriage ceremony scheduled for Saturday.
“But on Friday, he (Opejobi) was invited into the Amotekun office in Ijeda for questioning. There was a robbery incident and Opejobi was invited by the Amotekun men for questioning over the incident. An operative of the corps raised allegations against him. He honoured the invite on Friday.
But on Saturday, after he had concluded his mini marriage ceremony which brought him back home, he told two of his friends that joined him for the event that someone had made a false allegation against him and they went into town to look for the person. They eventually found the man who reported him around the Ijesa Ijesa Roundabout. They beat him to a state of coma and left the scene,” a resident of the community had said.
Displeased by the action of the soldiers, colleagues of the Amotekun man who was beaten, reportedly formed a search party and combed the town in search of them.
Another resident of the community, living along Ijebu Jesa road, who also preferred anonymity, said the Amotekun men who were searching for the soldiers eventually found them in a hotel, where they engaged in bloody clashes.
The soldier and his friends were wearing military attire, but they were not fully kitted. When information got to them that colleagues of the man whom they beat were looking for them, they left their rooms and waited in front of the hotel for them.
“I was inside the hotel when all that was going on. Before the Amotekun men got to the hotel premises, those soldiers were already waiting for them. It was during their clash that Tope Samuel was killed. During the clash, Opejobi was also injured. He had an open wound at the upper part of his head,” an eyewitness said.
Meanwhile, in a statement by the Osun Amotekun Corps Commander, Mr. Adekunle Omoyele, the Corps claimed that Opejobi killed Tope without provocation.
Omoyele’s statement partly read, “The incident occurred around 5:45 p.m. when a soldier, identified as Opejobi Fiyinfoluwa, who was recently recruited into the Nigerian Army, launched an unprovoked assault on the Amotekun operative.
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