The Executive Chairman of Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State, Hon. Kazeem Adeyemi alias Matala allegedly beat up a community leader, Alhaji Hamzat a coma on Wednesday.
The incident reportedly occurred at Keke/Aba Odu Road at Ward 5 in Egbeda Local Government Area.
The victim, Alhaji Hamzat, was said to be one of the community leaders who volunteered to fix a damaged portion of the road that is not motorable and has been causing untold hardship to motorists that ply the road.
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Narrating how the incident occurred, the Chairman of Keke/Aba Odu Community, Mr. Abimbola Aderemi (a..k.a. Omo Osumi) said that they had started fixing the said road since Monday with three truckloads of laterite initially donated by one Hon. Olamide and his friend, following an appeal for support made towards repairing the said road that has become a death trap.
According to him, “after we filled the damaged road with the three loads of laterite donated by Hon. Olamide, we started soliciting money from motorists, including okada riders, and we were able to raise about N32,200. Out of that amount, we gave N20,000 to the truck driver to bring another load of laterite to continue with our work.”
“In the process, Hon. Kazeem was passing by and met us at the spot. We didn’t even know it was him because he rode in a car with tinted glasses. He neither greeted us nor gave us anything as other passers-by did.
“To our surprise, not up to three minutes after he drove by, he turned back and alighted from his car with his boys numbering about 20. He swooped on the victim and beat him till he lost consciousness, over allegation that he was told that the victim was abusing him. This came as a surprise to us because nobody abused him. His house is not far from where we were fixing the said road.”
Onlookers at the scene tongue-lashed the council boss for his action, insisting that it was despicable and condemnable for a person in such position to descend low to the point of engaging in the public brawl for no just cause.
They added that his action has shown his level of decency, maintaining that he has shown, with his conduct, his lack of leadership quality. “It’s indeed an abuse of public office and an insult to the good people of Lagelu Local Government Area that he ought to be leading, one of the disappointed onlookers pointed out.
However, several attempts made to get Hon. Adeyemi’s side of the alleged encounter proved abortive as he did not answer calls placed to his mobile line. Similarly, a text message sent to his phone number was not responded to as at press time.
