Operatives from the Department of the State Security Service (DSS) and the Nigeria Police in Kogi State have launched a discreet investigation into the assassination of a monarch in the state, who was kidnapped and later found dead on Easter Monday.
It was gathered that security operatives in the state have intensified efforts to unmask the masterminds and motive behind the dastardly act.
The 85-year-old monarch, Oba Moses Obadofin of Aghara-Iluke in Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area, said to be a cashew merchant, was whisked away at about 10 pm on the fateful day, by six unknown gunmen wielding AK-47 rifles while relaxing at the frontage of his residence.
According to sources, one of the monarch’s biological sons, who manages his cashew plantation, reported the matter to the Kabba police division.
A 20-year-old girl, said to be a student in one of the secondary schools in the state, was also abducted alongside the monarch at his palace but was later released after 13 days in captivity with the payment of N2 million ransom.
She was released and dumped at Obajana Cement factory about six kilometers from Aghara-Iluke, scene of the abduction. The released girl was the one who informed the community that the monarch had died in the hands of the gunmen.
Five suspects have been arrested so far in connection with the assassination of the monarch.
Sources in the community said that the unknown gunmen later demanded N60 million for the release of the monarch. But three weeks after the abduction of the monarch at gun point, his dead body was discovered.
Findings by indicated that a group of Chinese investors visited the monarch sometime in 2022 to showed interest in mineral deposits in the town with a promise to give the monarch N100 million, which the monarch rejected.
“He instead requested the Chinese investors to provide infrastructure such as electricity and hospital among others for the benefit of the whole community”, the sources added.
The security operatives are working on the theories of likely conspiracy within the monarch’s palace or power struggle for the throne of the sleepy town of Aghara-Iluke. This is because, shortly after the assassination of the monarch, an unidentified person allegedly called from Lagos, saying the monarch would be found on that day he called.
He also reportedly provided the ambulance to convey the corpse of the monarch from where he had been killed.
Another source said that the Sarkin Fulani of Ofere village in Aghara-Iluke community, asked the family and the community not to pay any ransom for the release of the monarch to the armed kidnappers. “The Sarkin Fulani then organised a search and rescue mission for the monarch”, the sources added.
The search and rescue team, with the support of operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, succeeded in the efforts and arrested five suspected masterminds connected with the kidnap incident and assassination of the monarch.
They were kept in the Sarkin Fulani‘s domain and later handed over to the police force at Kabba.
