The family of the late House of Representatives member representing Lagelu / Akinyele Federal Constituency of Oyo State, Mr. Temitope Olatoye (a.k.a. Sugar), has urged the police hierarchy to stop playing politics with the death of their breadwinner.
The family made the reaction in response to a media report credited to the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 11, Leye Oyebade and the Oyo State Commissioner of Police Shina Olukolu, where they claimed that the killing of the deceased lawmaker was not political.
Speaking at a news conference at the Alakia, Ibadan family home of the deceased’s parents, the first son of the family, Mr. Olajide Oluwashina Olatoye, popularly called Big Daddy, said he was at the scene of the incident and saw how the assailants, numbering over 50, ambushed his younger brother, shot at his car before he was eventually killed.
The senior Olatoye said if he was at the scene of the event where his younger brother’s life was taken without been able to help and still remained silent on what transpired, nemesis would not forgive him.
Thanking the police for been dutiful to fish out the perpetrators, Olatoye pleaded with the government to ensure that the killers were brought to book to prevent a future recurrence.
He expressed shock that a man, who was killed on his way from an election venue and not from the market where he had gone shopping, could be said not to be politically-motivated.
He said: “I want to debunk the news been said by the AIG and Commissioner of Police in Oyo State that the killing of Sugar has nothing to do with politics, that it was just a murder case. No; it is not true.
“With due respect, I think that statement has a political undertone. By the time they killed Sugar, was he in Oja’ba, where he went to buy yam? Was it at Bodija, where he went to buy beans? It was during the election and he was coming from where he went to perform his civic duties as a good citizen of the country and as a Federal legislative member.
“So, his killing has much importance to politics. To us, it was a political murder. So, I am debunking the statement credited to the AIG, with due respect. The killing was obviously politically-motivated.
“For some reasons, I know those who killed my junior brother but for security reason, I will not say anything here. I am using this medium to thank the police that they have been trying with their investigation and trying to arrest the guys that did the job. We want justice to be done in order to prevent future occurrence.”
