Yahaya Samu, son of the deceased family head has narrated how gunmen killed six members of his family in a Fulani settlement near Wasinmi, along Ife-Ibadan Expressway, Osun State.
Yahaya said the gunmen called his father from a mosque, where he was praying, and asked him to kneel beside his two wives and three grandchildren, after which they asked for money before killing the victims.
He disclosed this on Sunday to journalists at the scene of the incident.
Yahaya, who fled when the settlement came under attack, said the gunmen came on two motorcycles around 10pm on Saturday night.
“The attackers came on two motorcycles around 10pm and started searching huts in the settlement. They didn’t enter some of the huts. They brought out the two wives of the deceased and three of his grandchildren.
“They asked for Alhaji and they led those already brought out to where my father was. He was inside the mosque and they called him out. They asked him, his two wives, three grandchildren and one other resident to kneel down.
“They asked my father for money and he told them he didn’t have money. My father also told them that he didn’t keep money at home and that whenever he needed money, he would sell his cow.
“They told him and the others to stand up and go and as he stood up, he was shot. The victims were shot at close range. I was in hiding while all that was happening. Two of my father’s grandchildren killed are my children.”
The immediate past Chairman of Irewole Local Government Area, Remi Abbas, in an interview with The PUNCH said he got a distress call about the attack in the early hours of Sunday and he led a team to the scene.
Abbas stated, “By the time we got there, six people who were shot had died. The seventh person was not dead and we evacuated him to a hospital for treatment. He is being treated now.
“Many of the residents of the settlement fled into the bush when the gunmen arrived. We are still looking for some of them. It is the first time such an incident would occur here.
“We will surely apprehend the perpetrators. Our men are already in the bush. The state Deputy Governor, Benedict Alabi, has visited the scene; the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Abiodun Ige, was also at the scene. We are on the trail of the perpetrators and we will surely get them.”