Ex-commissioner escapes assassination, husband’s fingers chopped off

A former commissioner in Ekiti State, Mrs Funke Owoseeni, narrowly escaped being killed by suspected assassins, on Thursday at her Ijesa Isu, in Ikole local government area of the state.

The armed men, who allegedly besieged the former commissioner’s residence with dangerous weapons, however, descended on her husband, Mr Paul Owoseeni, when they could not locate their target.

The attackers dealt with Mr. Owoseeni with machete and other dangerous weapons, chopping off five of his fingers in the process.

Mrs Owoseeni, who also served as the caretaker chairman of Ikole council and at a time, the women leader of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the state told journalists on the telephone that the assailants stormed her house at about 8.30pm and turned off the generating set outside, thereby subjecting the house into total blackout.

Mrs Owoseeni described the attack as a politically motivated assassination attempt.

She said while some students resident with her were about restoring light to the building, the bandits swooped on them and started requesting for where she (Mrs Owoseeni) was at that time.

According to her: “When the light went off, we suspected that the generating set was still running outside and we asked those students living with us to go out and check what was happening.

“Few minutes later, we heard them saying please save us, save us and my husband who was not with torch light rushed out to see what was
happening. The impression we first heard was a case of electrocution.

“While my husband rushed out to save the situation, I tried to get my torchlight to be able to see clearly.

“Shortly, the voices changed and I started hearing thief, thief, thief but my husband was already in their midst with those children. But because I went with torchlight, I was able to see them and I had to rush back inside and hid myself somewhere.

“They brought my husband inside and started asking ‘where is your wife? We are here for her and not you’. When he didn’t tell them where I was, they started macheting him with dangerous weapons and they did that until they chopped off his fingers and they fled when they saw that he had passed out.”

Mrs Owoseeni said they immediately took her husband to the General Hospital to stabilize him before he was referred to Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) for intensive medicare.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti division, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, said the case has not been reported at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti.