Soka area is home to many responsible persons and it recently evoked memories of horror when men of the Department of State Services and other security forces stormed the residence of a prominent Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemi aka Sunday Igboho.
The serenity of the night of July 1 was violated with the invasion which the DSS said left two of Igboho’s aides dead and 13 arrested, adding that its men recovered arms and ammunition in the residence. The secession agitator has had a brush with some security agents in the recent past.
Igboho’s supporters on many occasions alleged that several ways were being planned to arrest him following his eviction of killer herders in Ibarapaland. He also went to Igangan to issue a notice to quit to the then Seriki Fulani of Oyo State, Abdulkadir Salihu. Seriki was accused by Igangan residents of masterminding kidnappings, killings, destruction of farms and rape in Ibarapaland but he denied the allegations.
The residents of Soka, like other areas, looked forward to a peaceful state after a surge of insecurity in the state and other states. But July 1 ignited fresh fears in the residents when the security agents besieged Igboho’s residence at 1:30am. Some of them who spoke to Saturday PUNCH were still in shock and having sleepless nights days after the invasion.
A teacher living two streets away from Igboho’s house, who identified himself only as Philips, told our correspondent that he was observing an online church vigil to usher in the new month when he heard gunshots.
He said, “I was watching a church online vigil on Facebook and preparing to go to bed when I heard gunshots. I first thought it might be armed robbers but the sound of the guns was persistent and loud. I thus became afraid. I crawled to the room where my children were sleeping and carried them from the bed to the floor. I envisaged that if they were on the floor and bullets entered the room, they might escape. My wife and I also lay on the floor and my children woke up. I told them not to talk and lie down. The shooting was intense and I wondered why it was so without the intervention of security agents. I heard some people shouting and I felt the shootings were coming from the direction of Igboho’s house.
“We were in a state of panic until around 4am or 5am but it seemed like years. I prayed for hours that night. I did not go out until it was bright in the morning. We heard that some people were killed and I saw expended bullets in front of his house and many people gathered there. It was not the kind of incident one should experience twice, we now have sleepless nights and we are afraid.”One of the landlords in the area who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that his fellow landlord living close to Igboho’s house told him that the security agents jumped into his compound to ask for Igboho and his aides who they claimed ran to hide there.
He said, “My house is not close to Igboho’s house. But I have a friend whose house is close to it. I visited him a day after the incident and he told me that some officers of the DSS scaled the fence of his building that night on the claim that some people went into this compound to hide. He said he didn’t open the front door and that since they jumped into his compound, they could break the door open and search for whoever they were looking for.
“When I heard persistent gunshots, I knew what was happening had something to do with Igboho but I thought some killer herders were at work. The shooting was too much. I was really afraid and my wife went to urinate twice. It became clear that they were not shooting at our house, so I sat on the floor but anytime lie shooting seemed to be coming towards the direction of my house, I would lie on the floor. But I don’t pray to witness such a situation again.”
A resident who owns a shop around the area, Dauda Kareem, said though his house is not close to Igboho’s, the gunshots he heard on the night of the raid were indescribable.
He said, “They were just shooting and I thought those who came to kill Igboho might have decided to kill everybody in his neighbourhood so that there would not be any witnesses. I was asleep and rudely woken up by the sound. My phone was switched off to conserve the battery but by the time I switched it on, it was around 2am. I am sure if those who came to arrest him can that demonstrate like that to the herders killing people in the forest, they would all flee the area. Everybody knew they meant business. We thought they had either killed Igboho or captured him during the raid. Our minds would have been at rest if the raid was carried out in daylight. We would have known they are security agents but the night raid was disturbing and frightening, we now live in fear.’’
Also a motorcycle rider popularly called okada rider living around the area, Taju Adeoye, said the security agents who invaded Igboho’s house were many, saying a spy could have been sent to be sure he was at home before the raid.
Adeoye, who was initially unwilling to speak more on the matter, said he was awoken by the sound of a motorcycle which passed through the area.
He said, “I thought one of Igboho’s boys boarded the okada. I didn’t know that something strange would follow. About three minutes after the motorcycle had left the area, I heard the sound of vehicles being driven recklessly and I believe they were many. Almost immediately, I started hearing gunshots. They did not knock at the gate. They opened fire on the house and that was how the whole thing started.
Olufemi Olaniyi
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