Tension in Ondo community over murder of 7-year-old pupil

TRACKING___PALPABLE tension gripped Ugbo, the oil-rich Ilaje council area of Ondo State, weekend, following the violence that erupted following the murder of a seven-year-old pupil, Marvelous Akintubuwa, and the macheting of over 20 persons by hoodlums.

Among those injured during the clash over the forceful occupation of the old palace in the town include the wife of the former monarch, Olori Femi Mafimisebi. Many houses were torched by the hoodlums.

Police detectives have reportedly whisked a family member of the deposed monarch.

For fear of further attack, many members of the community have reportedly fled to neighbouring communities.

Speaking with newsmen in Akure, the counsel to Prince Mafimisebi, Idowu Mafimisebi, said the families of the former monarch have been ejected from the palace built by him while he reigned in the community.

He told Vanguard that the hoodlums, acting the script of Oba Akinruntan, have occupied the palace and destroyed all the property therein.

Mafimisebi said: “The hoodlums gave the children of our client namely Adetomiwa Mafimisebi and Abimbade Mafimisebi serious torture and degrading treatments by breaking their heads with axes and next gave a dehumanizing treatment to Olori Femi Mafimisebi, the wife of the former Olugbo by inflicting wounds on her with a machete and leaving scars on her back.

But reacting to the allegation that he sponsored the attack, the Olugbo of Ugbo, Oba Akinruntan, said he could never sponsor any attack on his subjects.

He said the palace that was the subject matter was ancestral to Ugbo people and was not attack at any point in time.

According to him” the residence has been in existence long before the short reign of the deposed monarch. How then can the same residence be claimed to have been owned by the deposed monarch?