How I escaped armed robbers’ attack on Boxing Day — APC Assembly candidate

The House of Assembly candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ekiti West Constituency 1 in Ekiti State, Mr Tajudeen Akingbolu, has narrated how he took refuge in a toilet on last year’s Boxing Day, December 26, 2018, to escape from an attack by suspected armed robbers who invaded his home in Ado Ekiti.

According to Akingbolu, his wife, children and siblings, who were at home at the time of the invasion, were yet to recover from the shock of the attack.

The legislator told journalists at his Olorunda residence area of Ado Ekiti that he was answering the call of nature in the toilet about 8.30pm when the unwanted guests stormed in. He added that he stayed glued to the toilet listening to how the bandits were commanding members of his household and beating some of them in the process.

From their words, he said, he knew the gunmen had pointed a gun at his eight-year-old daughter and was dying at that point with fright.

Akingbolu, a former caretaker chairman of Ekiti West Local Government and immediate past Assistant Legal Adviser of the APC in the state, recalled, “I had just closed for the day and immediately I arrived home, I went into the toilet. I had hardly settled on the closet when I started hearing unusual commands in my sitting room. Of course, I didn’t need anybody to tell me what was happening. I decided to stay put in the toilet, but my elder brother, a panel beater and painter, Mr Muri Akingbolu, who was in the adjoining room with another elder brother who was ill, came out to find out what was happening.

“As narrated by my wife and cousins, one of the two armed men wore a mask but the other didn’t. One of them pointed a gun at my brother and before he could say anything, he was beaten blue and black, while other members of the family were asked to lie down.

“In a jiffy, they collected all phones in the house, including the one I was charging. They collected N40,000 from brother Muri, which belonged to one of his customers. They pointed the gun at my wife and threatened to waste my children if she failed to cooperate. She led one of them to the room but they later asked my brother to follow her, from where they collected an additional N47,000 and a pair of  jeans trousers, which I had only recently bought. A tragic part of the story was the fact that my eight-year-old daughter was the first person they pointed the gun at. Up till now, the poor girl is still in shock.”

The legislator disclosed that he had reported the incident to the Oke Ila Divisional police headquarters in Ado-Ekiti, and that the Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent Caleb Ikechukwu, had assured him investigation had already commenced on the incident.