Two feared shot as irate Ibadan residents pelt Oyo Deputy Governor

The Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Moses Alake Adeyemo, was on Sunday stoned by angry residents of Apete area of the state capital when he (Adeyemo) visited a day after a heavy rainfall swept away some members of the community.

Sources said two people were also shot when security men attached to the deputy governor were trying to repel attack on him.

Mr. Adeyemo, who arrived the scene around 11.30 am was booed by the residents who accused the state government of neglecting the community since it came on board in 2011.

A heavy rainfall had swept away a makeshift bridge constructed as alternative to the major bridge still under reconstruction since it was damaged during a downpour in August 2011. Some members of the community, who were on the makeshift bridge when it was swept off on Saturday, were said to have lost their lives.

Though, no official actuality figure has yet been released, residents told journalists that the incident had claimed up to 25 people.

The atmosphere remained charged when WITNESS NIGERIA visited on Monday as security operatives, majority of who are armed police, kept vigil on the community.

Before the arrival of deputy governor on Sunday, aggrieved youth of the community had descended on the yard of the construction company handling the bridge, vandalizing their property.

Effort to get police reaction to the incident on Monday was unsuccessful as the state Police Public Relations Office, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, said she was yet to end her casual leave. No one was ready to give official comment either.

The state government had contracted the reconstruction of Apete Bridge since 2011 when a major heavy rainfall swept it away.

The bridge is the only link through which the residents get connected to other communities in the city.

Meanwhile, Accord Party in Oyo State has taken up the state government over last Saturday’s downpour in Ibadan which resulted in floods that led to the death of no fewer than twelve people, insisting the APC government’s inability to get its priorities right, caused the incident.

Accord, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, considered it appalling that three years after the flood that ravaged Ibadanland on August 26, 2011, the Ajimobi Administration has not deemed it fit to complete the Apete bridge.

“Accord party shares this moment of grief with the families of those washed away and killed at Apete, Olodo and Iwo road in Ibadan, saying if government had taken its duties seriously, those innocent souls would not have been lost to flooding,” the statement read.