A former two-time Commissioner in Ekiti State, Alhaji Tajudeen Olamide Arowolo, has been accused of attacking a female journalist, Elizabeth Bamidele, over a parcel of land in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
The female journalist, who has since reported the matter to the police, said life and those of her three children are presently in danger.
Bamidele has pleaded with the Governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, to come to her rescue and save her from the activities of those she described as land grabbers disturbing her peace.
She alleged that on October 30, 2024, some alleged land grabbers led by Arowolo, who hails from Awo Ekiti, beat her up for denying them the opportunity to trespass on her property, where she erected her building four years ago.
She revealed that she got her land from one Evangelist Obafemi Oladele (Igbari Family), with documents in 2011, and she completed the house and moved into it in 2020.
Bamidele stated that she had tried to draw the attention of Evangelist Oladele to the situation, but his phone number did not go through.
The other people who joined Arowolo to torment her on the landed property, she alleged, are Yemi Omojo Ibo, Daniel, Ojo, and Tunde.
Narrating her ordeal at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, Bamidele said she was brutally harassed and beaten up by Alhaji Arowolo, who she said hails from Awo Ekiti.
She explained further that her landed property is located on the New Iyin Ekiti Road in Ado Ekiti, thereby questioning the connection between Iyin Ekiti and Awo Ekiti, which are two different towns and many kilometres away from each other.
Despite an intervention by the Ekiti State Police Command, she said Arowolo has refused to allow her to live in peace in her house.
According to Bamidele: “The case was to be charged to court (yesterday), 31st October, 2024 and both of us were told to report at the Ekiti State Police Headquarters, but on getting to there, I was told that Alhaji Tajudeen Olamide Arowolo refused to honour the police invitation because he said he has a burial programme to attend on Friday, 1st of November, 2024.”
Reacting to the allegations levelled against him, Arowolo stated he was unable to honour the police invitation on Thursday because he was bereaved and not in town, assuring he would be present on Monday or Tuesday to which the court proceeding had been rescheduled.
On whether he assaulted Bamidele, Arowolo responded: “If you look at the mental state of the lady, you will realise that she is not mentally stable.
“If you also look at the statement she wrote at the police station, you will know that she has also indicted herself already.”
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Arowolo queried how she would defy the order of the police in respect of the land in question.
He accused the victim of buying the land from somebody who stole the land, adding: “We told her that the land in question does not belong to the person from whom she bought it.
“We also reported her to the police station so we would not take the laws into our own hands.”
When asked if she was truly beaten with a stick, as she alleged, Arowolo, responding, challenged journalists to ask her to show the parts of her body that were injured.
He said as a two-time former Commissioner in Ekiti State, he knows the values of human beings and would not do such things.
He alleged that the woman was the first person to hold one of his boys during the fight and she could have sustained injuries in the process when they were being separated.
Arowolo said further that in her statement at the Police Headquarters, she also showed clearly that she was the one who initially held onto one of his boys.
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