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Suspected thugs invade AD chieftain's filling station, destroy property
From Ifedayo Sayo, Ado-Ekiti

ARMED thugs yesterday invaded Mobil petrol station in the Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, destroying property estimated at N4 million.

The suspected thugs who wore mobile police uniform got to the filling station at about 9 a.m. and beat up the owner, Chief Remi Oguntuase, an Alliance for Democracy (AD) chieftain and other attendants at the station.

Oguntuase, an ally of the former Governor of the state, Chief Adeniyi Adebayo believed that he was being attacked for political reason adding that the attack on his station was part of the ploy to cow AD members in the state to submission.

The AD chieftain, a former Chairman of the State Petroleum Task Force claimed that the invaders were armed with guns and cutlasses and on getting to the station destroyed the two main pumps valued at about N1.5 million each.

Also, the mart located in the filling station was not spared as they broke all its glass doors.

However, the suspected thugs, about three in number did not touch anything in the mart but shot into the air to drive on-lookers and sped away in their ash colour passat car.

Oguntuase told journalists that they used cutlasses to cut off the nozzle of the pumps in the station, which they took away.

"Immediately they (thugs) arrived, they shot into the air and started beating the attendants who were selling petrol after which the pumps were destroyed. "They moved into the supermarket and used their guns to shatter the glass," he said.

The AD chieftain insisted that his ordeal was part of the ongoing political victimisation of opponents, saying the state's petroleum products monitoring committee had in October 25, 2003 sealed up the filling station after accusing him of selling fuel in jerry cans.

He explained that he later got a court injunction in January this year restraining the government from sealing up the station.

Also, Oguntuase claimed that a special order from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), in Abuja came to the state government to re-open the filling station.

The order from the DPR described the action of the state government as illegal and warned against any further threat to the operations of the filling station.

However, he added that in February this year, some policemen who claimed to be representing the state petroleum products monitoring committee came back to the station and arrested him and his attendants. They were later released on bail.

Oguntuase said the latest attack on him was not in the interest of the state as it would send dangerous signal to investors who may be willing to set up firms.