A member of Ori Awo community, where Abolongo Medium Security Custodial Centre, Oyo town, Oyo State, is situated, has opened up on their experiences on Friday when gunmen disrupted the peace of the sleepy area.
Mr Dauda Ogunlana, a painter and hunter, told Tribune Online that he was about to go to bed when he heard gunshots and explosives. According to Mr Ogunlana, “it was not long after I got home. I was about to sleep after eating when I started hearing ‘boom, boom, boom’ sound as if our neighbourhood was being bombed. We all cowered and didn’t know what to do.
“Suddenly, I got calls from some hunters telling me that we needed to go out, as the sound being heard was coming from the prison, which is beside where I live.
“I expected them and started calling but didn’t see them. The sporadic gunshots and the booming sound were non-stop. The explosive sound was making our buildings vibrate as if they would collapse. People at home clutched at the ground while some ran out.
“I was alone at my side when I heard sporadic gunshots close to me, but they later subsided. It went silent. About five minutes after, rain started falling and I went inside.
“On Saturday morning, a resident came to me from the place opposite mine. After exchanging greetings on how God saved us in the night, he asked me to come and behold something.
“There is an uncompleted building beside him which has just been roofed. He took me inside, though initially, he didn’t want to enter.
“He explained to me that some of those who were shooting in the night came to sleep in the building and left after the rain stopped. He said he could not call me because he was trembling where he was.
“He said that they were passing by his window and speaking a non-indigenous language, as they were not Yoruba people.
“We saw blood splattered on the floor with empty sachets of water. We left the building, hoping that they had gone. We checked every other place we thought they could be hiding but we didn’t see anyone.
“As we came out at a junction, I sighted the uniform usually worn by our members in hunters’ council a little bit afar in the bush. I crossed to the side and saw the bodies of two of us with whom we exchanged calls on Friday night. They had been fatally shot. Even the rain fell on their dead bodies. So I suspected that the gunshots I heard were exchanged between them and the gunmen.”
Ogunlana further told Tribune Online that the man who showed him where the invaders stayed before leaving when the rain stopped didn’t sleep in his house on Saturday because of his experience. He enjoined the government to provide tight security in the entire area, not only the prison yard.
“All the roads that lead to the place should be well secured,” he said.
