A leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ileoluji in Ileoluji-Okeigbo Local Government area of Ondo State, Mr. Kamoru Ogundare, has reportedly gone into hiding, following plots by his political enemies to eliminate him and other members of his family.
Ogundare, who revealed his ordeal through his uncle, Alhaji Sumola Faremi, in Okeigbo over the weekend, said his house was also set ablaze in the process.
His uncle, Faremi, told journalists in Okeigbo that Ogundare’s ordeal dated to May 2022 when his principal whom he served as special assistant on politics and strategy, vied for the PDP ticket to run for the House of Representatives’ election in the federal constituency.
“There were seven other contestants along with Kamoru’s boss known as Honourable Olatunji Timothy Felder.
“Some of the contestants saw my nephew, Kamoru, as a strong pillar of support for his boss and as such felt that the best way is to remove him as an obstacle by getting him killed.
“Shortly before the primary election which held on May 17, 2022, Kamoru told us that he received many death threats from these characters and that he even reported to the Police but that the cops felt it was a political matter that would not pose a serious danger.
“On the day of the election which held till midnight at Odigbo, in Isero Grammar School, hired thugs nearly killed Kamoru at the collation centre but for loyalists of his boss who rescued him out of the venue.
“But when the votes were eventually counted, Felder, Kamoru’s boss won at the poll, which was the beginning of crisis,” Faremi recounted.
He added in his recall that as Ogundare was travelling out of Okeigbo to Akure the state’s capital in the early hours, in his camry car, he was accosted by some gun-weilding hired killers riding on two commercial motorcycles popularly known as okada.
“It was in the attempt to escape the killer gang that his vehicle swerved into the bush and he had a serious accident where he sustained serious injuries and his car was also badly damaged.”
The attack that resulted in the fatal crash, occurred between Aponmu and Olokuta town, close to Akure and the report was lodged at the Fanibi Police Divisional headquarters in Akure, where investigations revealed that the attackers were politicians from Ogundare’s Ileoluji countryhome.
Faremi recalled that Ogundare was rushed to an hospital in Akure where he spent many months before he recovered.
It was while he was in the hospital in Akure that news filtered in that his traducers had gone to set his house ablaze, since they could not locate him for elimination.
He lamented further that Ogundare’s political enemies had in the last one year been on his trail, as they saw him, being a vocal political activist, as a threat to their political rise among the people of Okeigbo.
He said while the case had been reported to the police, nothing substantial had been done by the cops to protect his nephew, who is still in hiding, along with his family members.
