On Thursday, a group of traders attacked members of the Ekiti State Amotekun Corps in the Atikankan neighbourhood of Ado Ekiti, the state's capital. Four people were hurt in the incident, thought to be security personnel.
To control the movement of vendors along the road in Oja'ba, Oja Bisi, and Atikankan Market, the leadership of the Ado Local Government Area allegedly hired Amotekun Corps. However, the source claimed that "some traders at Atikankan resisted the attack, ambushed Amotekun Corps operatives, and unleashed mayhem on the security agents with dangerous weapons."
He claimed that the merchants employed weapons such as rifles, cutlasses, and daggers and that this led to the injury of agents and the vandalization of roughly three Amotekun patrol vans.
He said, “These people in Atikankan area have been constituting serious nuisance and security threat to the state in the last few years with the kind of criminal activities happening on daily basis.
“This is a place where you go and see people hawking cannabis in broad daylight, used as criminal hideouts and selling and buying of stolen items, among other illicit activities. Government asked them to relocate to another place provided for them, but they were adamant and insisting they won’t leave the place.
“They said nobody can make them vacate the place, you can see the problem in our hands. The Amotekun people were there today (Thursday) to effect the directives of government on the relocation when they were attacked with dangerous weapons.
“They injured the operatives and destroyed their patrol vehicles. I heard one person died in the fracas but I can’t confirm that at the moment,” the source said.
Sunday Abutu, the police public relations officer for the Ekiti State Command, confirmed the altercation and reported that four suspects had so far been detained in connection with it.
He said, “The command received a distress call that there was a clash between Amotekun operatives and a group of irate youths in Atikankan area of Ado Ekiti. The command immediately deployed operatives to the scene to maintain peace and forestall further damage.
