
Intimidation, Harassment & More Arrests of APC members with Divergent views from Oyebanji’s 2nd term bid is likely, that is the word around town.Ekiti APC is at an all time low!!!
The true colour which the Gov Oyebanji’s second term campaign will take gets clearer by the day. At the early hours of Friday 17th January 2025, police RRS officer Marcus led a team of Nigerian police officers attached to Ekiti Command to Ikoro Ekiti to arrest (in a gangster like fashion operation) the APC ward chairman and other ward EXCO members who are known to be Dele Alake loyalists.

The undercurrent discussion in Ikoro and Ijero townships is perceived attempted force to convert independent minded party members to praise sing the incumbent governor’s second bid attempt.
The arrest was witnessed by former house of representative member, Hon Ropo Ige. Hon Ropo Ige, an elder statesman and community leader intervened in the arrest process and insisted on accompanying the victims to wherever police RRS officer Marcus and his team intended to incarcerate them at.


It is bedeviling to suggest that the ward chairman being kept on trumped up charges can be charged on such spurious charges despite his personal recognition to have secured the prestigious party office.
This report was witnessed at the RRS jail house at Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State. According to Mr. Toyin Michael, PRO APC Ikoro Ward, he traced the genesis of the incident to last year’s November, when Governor Biodun Oyebanji gave Ikoro LCDA Chairman, Kole Ayeni, five bags of rice and a sum of N500,000 to share among APC members in the LCDA.
He said that a few days after Mr. Ayeni received the gift items from the Governor, he absconded with them. Despite the several calls made to him by Mr. Eniola Olomu, the Ward Chairman, he refused to respond to the calls. When he eventually accepted to attend the party meeting, he came along to the meeting with only two bags of rice. When asked to account for what happened to the remaining bags of rice, he couldn’t give any justifiable reasons why he could only bring two bags of rice out of the five bags sent to the LCDA by the governor.
The Ikoro APC Ward PRO further stated that, by evening, after the meeting was suspended due to Mr. Ayeni’s inability to produce the five bags of rice, social media was filled with a video showing a riotous meeting where angry members were seen using dangerous weapons against each other. He said that the video was not only fake but also contrary to what happened at the meeting.
He stated that investigations revealed that it was the LCDA Chairman who hired one of his boys, who doubles as the LCDA Secretary, popularly known as ‘Saraki’, to release the purported video to discredit the leaders of the party in the Ward and prevent further meetings from being called when issues bordering on the sharing of the five bags of rice and N500,000 sent to the LCDA would be discussed.
A complaint was lodged at the RSS office in Ado-Ekiti over the fake video, which led to the arrest of the LCDA Secretary, ‘Saraki’, a few hours after the video had gone viral. Saraki was later released a day after his arrest. In a bid to retaliate against Saraki’s arrest, Mr. Kole Ayeni, the LCDA Chairman, in connivance with one Marcus, an official of RSS, stormed Ikoro-Ekiti in the early hours of Friday, January 17, and arrested the APC Women leader, Mrs. Bukky Bamidele, at her home. The women leader was said to be asleep when the RSS officials arrived at her home, and she was picked up half-naked. It took the intervention of some party faithful who arrived at the location to get her properly dressed before she was moved to Ado-Ekiti.
As of Friday morning, the party leaders, including Honourable Ropo Ige and the Ward PRO, were at the RSS office to secure the release of Mrs. Bukky Bamidele, but to no avail.
A countering account of the events that transpired was given by the LCDA chairman, Mr Kole Ayeni. The Chairman of Ikoro LCDA, Mr. Kole Ayeni, stated that the LCDA received five bags of rice and a sum of N500,000 towards the end of November 2024 from Governor Biodun Oyebanji for his 2nd Anniversary celebration. The bags of rice were not shared early enough as expected because the directive for sharing was not received in time.
A unanimous decision was reached by party leaders in the Ikoro Ward that the five bags of rice would not be shared until the Senator, House of Representatives, and State House of Assembly members from the area also donated their bags of rice and cash gifts for Christmas and New Year. Mr. Ayeni expressed surprise upon receiving an emergency meeting notice a day before Christmas, called by the APC Ward Chairman, Mr. Eniola Olomu. He stated that the meeting was poorly attended and that he promised an additional ten bags of rice and a sum of one million to be shared.
The LCDA Chairman alleged that the Ward Chairman, Mr. Olumu, had stopped identifying with other party leaders in Ijero local government even before the contentious gifts were received by the LCDA. It took the intervention of other party leaders in the area to ensure that what was due to other members of the party was given to them.When the meeting was officially called on December 28, the Ward Chairman and his perceived aggrieved supporters were absent, prompting the meeting to be rescheduled.
The meeting eventually held on January 10, with a tense atmosphere and palpable apprehension of a likely breakdown of law and order.Before his arrival, over 300 people had written down their names for the rice and cash gift. Upon his arrival, Mr. Ayeni alleged that he was physically attacked by Adekunle Raheem, who also beat a woman. The women leader, Mrs. Bukky Bamidele, allegedly destroyed several bags of rice meant to be shared, causing the meeting to end abruptly.
The next morning, the LCDA Secretary was arrested and taken to the area Police Command in Ijero-Ekiti. Mr. Ayeni stated that he was at the police station to secure the release of the LCDA Secretary when a serving Counsellor, Mr. Ayegbusi Opeyemi, was slapped by Olagunju Adebayo one of the boys loyal to Eniola Olomu. The arrested Secretary was later released to the LCDA Boss.
Mr. Ayeni alleged that the arrest was orchestrated by Olomu and Olagunju Adebayo. He wrote a petition to the Ekiti State Police Command, detailing the purported atrocities of the Ward chairman and his cohorts. On Thursday night, officers and men of the Nigeria Police force arrived in Ikoro to effect the arrest of the women leader and two others. The three arrested APC leaders were moved to Ado-Ekiti and detained.
The LCDA Chairman requested that the remaining two accused persons be arrested and charged to court or made to write an undertaking that they would not foment trouble in the Ward going forward. He condemned the role played by Chief Ropo Ige in the matter, stating that Chief Ige and the Ward Chairman were against him due to his political posture for BAO 4+4 Campaign.
