Teslim Folarin, an APC candidate for governor in Oyo State, narrowly avoided an attempted murder on Thursday in Ibadan, the state capital.
Yekeen Olaniyi, Folarin’s special adviser on media and publicity, told The PUNCH over the phone that a group of masked gunmen broke into his principal’s ancestral home in the Oja’gbo neighborhood of the state’s Ibadan North-East Local Government area at around 8 pm in search of Folarin, who was supposed to be meeting with his family members.
Olaniyi said, “Oga escaped an assassination attempt on his life this evening. He had a scheduled meeting with his family members at Oja’gbo. As you are aware, he is the one representing his family at the Olubadan line as Asaju Olubadan. So, he was supposed to hold the meeting between 6:30 and 7pm but because he was on air at a radio station, he couldn’t meet up at that time.
“He didn’t leave the radio station until around 8:40 pm. So, the gunmen invaded the area around 8pm thinking that he was there and started shooting sporadically and wounded many people.”
Olaniyi consequently requested more security for his boss from the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, through the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, and other security organizations.