THREE members of staff of Ondo West local government area of Ondo state have been arrested by the police over their involvement in the death of a 71year-old woman, Mrs. Victoria Ogunti.
The incident, which occurred last Thursday, at Fidipote street, New Town area of Ondo, involved three staff of the rate section of the council, Atinuke Oyesanmi, Adesoye Folasade and Olasupo Abodede.
According to one of the grandsons of the deceased, Mr. Akinyemi Olakunle, the council officials demonstrated a high level of insensitivity to the plight of the old woman, who begged them to give her time to enable her sort out the issue of payment of the local rate they were demanding from her.
“I was coming from work few months ago, when the council officials came to our residence to paste a bill in regard to the outstanding tenement rate of the house. They were shouting at the old woman to pay the tenement rate to them, while the woman was appealing to them to take things easy, as she had no money to pay them at that point in time.” He said.
“I dipped my hand in my pocket and gave them two thousand naira and they gave us a receipt. They came back on the 7th of June again to ask for money from the old woman and fortunately, I was at home. As soon as I saw the council officials arguing with the mama, I came downstairs to meet them, but before I got there, one of the officials had pushed the poor woman and she fell down. We immediately rushed her to the hospital where she was confirmed dead,” he added.
The council officials were reported to have attempted to run away from the scene of the incident but, they were prevented by some residents of the area who have mobilised themselves to protest their incessant harassments by Ondo west local government officials over the payments of taxes and rates.
It was the timely intervention of police from Enu owa division of the Nigerian Police at the area that nipped the crisis in the bud, as the officials were immediately arrested and detained.
The Divisional Police Officer of Enu owa division was not around when his view was sought by journalists, but the DPO of Yaba Police headquarters, Mr. Mike Okoh confirmed the development, when he was contacted and stated that the case had been transferred to the State Police headquarters in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Interim Management Committee of Ondo West local government, Mr. Bashiru Akinsade has died. He died after a brief illness. It will be recalled that, the ailment that led to the death of the council boss had been shrouded in secrecy, as all the council officials had kept mum on the issue until the demise of Mr. Akinsade few days ago.
The late council boss, who died at the age of 57, was reported to have been admitted at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, after he went into a coma in Ondo.
His illness and eventual death has become a controversial issue in Ondo state, as people expressed divergent opinions on the real cause of the sickness that took him away from Ondo for several weeks.
Until his death, Mr. Bashiru Akinsade was a professional teacher, who served at numerous schools in Ondo state. He later resigned from the teaching profession by taking up appointment at Cadbury Nigeria Plc where he became the first Administrative Officer of Stanmark Cocoa Processing Company, Ondo. He worked at the company for 10 years before resigning in 2001 as the Assistant Manager.
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