Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

Police arrest armed man at Mimiko’s rally. From Niyi Bello and Julius Alabi, Guardian.

A 29-YEAR-OLD armed man was yesterday arrested by the police at the rally of the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State, Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko. The incident occurred at Ogbagi Akoko in Akoko North West Local Council of the state during a campaign programme.

There were however two conflicting accounts of the incident.

One of the accounts claimed that the man, whose names were given as Tope Ajayi, allegedly disguised as a photo-journalist and was arrested by Mimiko’s private security details who suspected that he had ulterior motives while the second narration claimed that Ajayi was arrested at the campaign ground by the police.

The Guardian learnt that the suspicious movements of the man, who hung a camera on his neck, was noticed among the crowd that accompanied Mimiko to the palace of the traditional ruler of the town, the Owa of Ogbagi.

The former Minister of Housing and Urban Development was in the town to round off his campaign, which began on Monday in the council before a scheduled general rally at Ikare-Akoko, headquarters of the council, later in the day.

Witness accounts have it that the suspected hired assassin was apprehended by close aides of Mimiko when a bulge was noticed in his apparel right inside the palace and very close to where Mimiko would have sat.

He was said to have fled the scene but was arrested after a hot chase by those on the campaign train and members of the public who retrieved two sharp butcher’s knives and a gun loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition from him.

After a thorough beating, he was said to have given his names and confessed that his mission was to assassinate Mimiko after he must have left the palace on the way to Ikare-Akoko and that he was only one of five persons given that task by unnamed politicians.

Before policemen attached to the Ogbagi Police Station saved him from being lynched by the mob, the suspect was said to have disclosed that the other members of his team were waiting in the crowd at the Ikare rally.

The policemen, led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), reportedly took him first to Irun-Akoko Hospital and later to the Ikare-Akoko General Hospital where he is receiving treatment under armed guard.

The second account disclosed that there was confusion yesterday at Ogbagi Akoko in Akoko North Local Council of the state as one of the hired assassins who identified himself as Tope Ajayi and posed as a photo-journalist was arrested while trying to pull a gun from his pocket to shoot Mimiko at a rally in the town.

It said the suspect, along with others now at large, had posed as journalists since the beginning of the campaign at about 10.00 a.m. yesterday as they took several pictures with their digital cameras.

The Guardian was told that as soon as Mimiko got to the venue of the campaign, there was a rush by the people to the podium. In the process, the suspect was noticed with a gun, which he kept in his dress.

The police were said to have been alerted and unknown to the man that he was being monitored, he brought out the weapon and aimed it at Mimiko.

The source said before he could pull the trigger, the police and supporters of Mimiko pounced on him.

At Irun General Hospital where he is hospitalised, Ajayi told The Guardian that he was paid N100,000 to kill Mimiko by a chieftain of an opposition party in the state. He said that he was not alone in the plot, alleging that other members took to their heels when he was arrested.

Sources at the Ondo Police Command in Akure, who confirmed the incident, said that the headquarters was awaiting a comprehensive report from the security operatives at the scene and that the Ogbagi Police Division was adequately equipped to carry out preliminary investigations.

The alleged attempt on Mimiko’s life came barely three hours after the Director of Publicity of the LP, Aderemi Olatubora, addressed a press conference that the life of the politician was in danger.

Olatubora had said that intelligence reports reaching the party revealed that plans had reached advanced stage by opponents of the LP to assassinate Mimiko and make it look like an accident or create an atmosphere under which he would be arrested on trumped-up charges.

According to him, the first plan “was to get fake military men and (SSS) operatives to arrest and later finish off our candidate after a traffic commotion to be co-ordinated by five men using a newly bought Sport Utility Van (SUV).”

He alleged that the second plan was to be executed through implication of the candidate by “boys already arrested or to be arrested for illegal possession of firearms, while the third plan was to stuff fake ballot boxes in a new bus with the logo of the Labour Party to create the impression that we planned to rig the forth-coming elections

Meanwhile, hundreds of youths staged a protest at the palace of the Deji of Akure, Oba Oluwadare Adesina, over allegations that a youth leader in the town, Adesanya Fayeun, was almost assassinated last Monday by suspected agents of an opposition party.

While the protests lasted, commercial activities, vehicular and human movements were halted in the area.

Fayeun, before he decamped to the LP, was a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. He told The Guardian that a price of N2.5 million had been placed on his head by his political opponents.

He said that the plot would have been executed last Monday when hoodlums in two buses and two cars invaded his home on Irowo Street at Akure but for the vigilance of the residents who protected him.