By A 60-year-old man was shot dead in Osogbo on Wednesday, hours after a confrontation involving suspected gang members broke out near the Ataoja’s palace during a courtesy visit by Governor Ademola Adeleke and his nephew, the musician David Adeleke, known as Davido.
According to a police statement issued Wednesday and signed by the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abiodun Ojelabi, the Command received a report at about 4 p.m. that Tajudeen Yusuf, of the Oke-Ayepe area of Osogbo, had been shot by suspected hoodlums at Itaolokan.
Police said preliminary investigations traced the chain of events back to a courtesy visit paid earlier that day by Governor Adeleke and Davido to the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, at his palace. Immediately after the visit, a man identified as Adebayo Taoreed, said by police to be an ex-convict, a suspected notorious thug and a member of the Eiye confraternity, allegedly attempted to gain access to Davido but was resisted by his security detail.
The resulting confrontation, police said, drew in other suspected gang members in the area, who briefly blocked the palace entrance and obstructed movement before the convoy was able to leave safely. Police said the suspects then left the vicinity, and it was on their way out that they allegedly shot Yusuf at Itaolokan.
A police patrol team was dispatched to the scene, where the victim was found lying in a pool of blood and rushed to the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. He was pronounced dead by attending doctors.
The Commissioner of Police for the Osun Election, Samuel Etaifo, condemned the killing and said the Command would deploy all available resources to apprehend those responsible. Police said a full-scale investigation is under way and efforts have been intensified to identify and arrest the suspects, who remain at large.
The Command has appealed to members of the public with useful information to contact the nearest police station or its official channels, while urging residents to remain calm and avoid taking the law into their own hands.
