The Olu of Itori, in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, Oba Fatai Akamo, on Tuesday ordered the police to arrest and detain the PUNCH newspapers correspondent in the state, Bankole Taiwo, for inquiring into the trending video where one Sanni Babatunde Akeem, a physically challenged person, was levelling a land-grabbing allegation against the royal father and another monarch, Oba Kayode Sodimu.
Akeem, walking with crutches in the video, had alleged that Oba Akamo and Sodimu invaded his vast farmland with thugs, beat his workers to stupor, and brought in a caterpillar to clear the land.
The physically challenged man in the four-minute video said, “I am Sanni Babatunde Akeem. It was my workers who called me that some people had invaded my farmland with about 40 thugs and a caterpillar.
“They claimed to have been working for the Olu of Itori, Oba Fatai Akamo, and Oba Kayode Sodimu. They beat my workers and tore their clothes because they said that they were making videos of what they were doing on the farmland.
“They attacked me too and tore my clothes, and this is all I have been operating since 2014. I have fish ponds here likewise piggery, poultry, and where I planted yam among other farming activities.
“I consider this as an attempt to be cheated. So, the Ogun State Government, the Federal Government of Nigeria, and our representatives in government must come to my aid.”
However, having been invited for the press conference to herald the 21st coronation anniversary of the royal father at his palace on Tuesday, the PUNCH correspondent seized the opportunity to ask Oba Akamo for his own side of the story to the viral video.
The journalist disclosed that the royal father who had started telling all that he knew about the viral video all of a sudden became livid when he was asked about the other royal father mentioned in the video.
According to him, Oba Akamo began shouting, “What do you mean? This boy was sent here. Police arrest him and take him to your station.”
Other journalists who were at the event tried to beg the royal father, but he insisted that the police should take the reporter to their station and detain him.
However, after about four minutes of getting to the police station, the police got another call from the palace and took the PUNCH correspondent back to the palace where the police handed over his seized phone to him and ordered that all that he had recorded at the palace be deleted.
Punch
