A journalist, Mrs Elizabeth Bamidele, in Ekiti State, has raised the alarm over alleged threat to her life and her children’s by a two-time Commissioner in Ekiti State, Alhaji Tajudeen Olamide Arowolo, over a land issue.
Bamidele who appealed to the governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to her help alleged that Arowolo and others had been assaulting her in the bid to take over her land on which she already has a property and is living.
In his reaction, however, Arowolo denied threatening the life of the journalist, saying that she allegedly bought the land from the wrong person, who he claimed stole it.
Narrating her ordeal at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Press Centre in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, Bamidele, said she was brutally harassed and beaten up by Alhaji Tajudeen Olamide Arowolo, and others because she refused to allow them to trespass on her property on which she erected her building four years ago.
The journalist who showed the injury she sustained while, said that she got her land from one Evangelist Obafemi Oladele (Igbari Family) with documents in 2011, and she completed the house and moved in 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.
Bamidele said others that joined Arowolo to torment her were one Yemi Omojo Ibo, Daniel, Ojo, and Mr Tunde.
Bamidele stated that despite the intervention of the police in the matter, Arowolo had refused to allow her to live in peace in her house.
According to the victim, “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 there, I was told that Alhaji Tajudeen Olamide Arowolo refused to honour the Police’s invitation because he said he had a burial programme to attend on Friday, 1st of November, 2024.”
In his reaction, Arowolo denied the allegation of land grabbing, saying Bamidele allegedly bought the land from the wrong person.
He denied assaulting her and said he did not report at the police station as was requested because he was bereaved and was not in town.
Said Arowolo: “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.”
He denied assaulting the journalists, saying that as a two-time former Commissioner in Ekiti State, he knew the value of human beings and would not do such things.
