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A four-man gang on Monday night ransacked the residence of the former acting vice chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Professor Olufemi Mimiko carting away vital documents and other valuables in a five-hour operation which saw them subjecting his household to a harrowing ordeal.
A four-man gang on Monday night ransacked the residence of the former acting vice chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Professor Olufemi Mimiko carting away vital documents and other valuables in a five-hour operation which saw them subjecting his household to a harrowing ordeal.
The attack, on the residence of Prof. Mimiko, who is the younger brother of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the April polls in Ondo State and former Housing and Urban Development minister is coming barely two weeks after the state LP raised an alarm over alleged plans by the Dr. Olusegun Agagu's government to attack the homes of Dr. Mimiko and his siblings.
The attack, LP had stated would be carried out with a view to destroying valuable documents that might be basic to the on-going petition of Dr. Mimiko against the victory of Dr. Agagu in the April 14 governorship election at the election petition tribunal sitting in Akure, the state capital.
According to a statement from the party, 'providence, perhaps, saved the younger Mimiko from possible harm as he had traveled out of Ondo State that Monday morning leaving his children, his wife, the maid and the security guard behind."
According to his flustered wife, Mrs. Mimiko, a Lawyer, the marauders gained entrance into the compound at about 10o.clock on Monday evening, tried to get the guard to lure her out of the main building and when this failed, they attempted to bluff their way inside by pretending to be policemen on a routine visit.
'They were shouting madam, open the door, we are police officers. When it dawned on them that I will not open the door, they opened the window with forced and entered.
They beat my maid, attempted to rape her and when she resisted, they inflicted her with machete cuts on the head. They then went berserk ransacking the whole place carting away documents and asking for money.
They specifically asked us to surrender the remaining part of the money with which we run the campaign against Dr. Agagu to them. They also asked us to bring out guns and I told them that my husband is not a politician but an academic and that we don't own guns.
It was a harrowing ordeal, they took cash, my trinkets, handsets and a lot of things that I can't recollect now," she disclosed.
Prof. Mimiko who had to rush back to Akure on Tuesday morning could only thank God that aside the maid and the guard, Mr. Sunday Sanyaolu, who were injured, nobody was killed. He, however, wondered what must have happened if he were home.
The incident had been reported at the Oba-Ile Police Station. Indeed, plain-clothe policemen were seen at the scene carrying out preliminary investigations. Meanwhile, the Labour Party has condemned in strong terms, the attck on the younger Mimiko's residence calling on the Ondo State Police Command and other security agents to get to the root of the matter.
The party, in a release issued by its Director of Press, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, regretted that the incidents was coming barely two weeks in which it cried out over plans by the Special Adviser on Political Matters to the State governor, Chief Segun Adegoke and some acolytes of the government to attack Mimiko's residence and that of his brothers.
'Since we started the race for the April elections in this State, we have continued to cry out to security agents and the whole world over the numerous dastardly acts being planned by the Agagu government. Without exception, all our claims have always come out to be true.
'Thus, when we make this latest claim, we were not just crying out just for the fun of it. Now it has happened. Who knows what might have happened if Prof. Mimiko was at home when the marauders came? One thing is however crystal clear, the younger Mimiko is suffering for the perceived sins of his elder brother (Dr Olusegun Mimiko) in the hands of Agagu and his minions.
'In 2005, Prof Mimiko came first in an interview conducted by world class eminent professors at the Adekunle Ajasin University for the position of the institution's Vice Chancellor. But lo and behold, he was denied this position simply because his brother Mimiko is seen by Agagu as a cog in his inordinate ambition to govern Ondo State perpetually even when it is clear that he is no longer wanted by the people of the State.
Now it has turned to this." While urging the security agencies in the State to provide adequate security for the Mimikos, and the entire leaders of the Labour Party in the State, the party warned the state government that 'nothing untoward must happen to any of our people and our immediate families. We urge the police and other security agencies to provide adequate security for us and to know who to ask if anything happened to any of our people more so when the case at the Election petition Tribunal is at its climax and it is obvious on whose side the pendulum of justice is swinging."