Protest erupted in Ede, Osun State on Sunday as news filtered in that the first civilian governor of the state, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, died in the early hours of the day.
Bonfires were made at strategic locations. Security agents battled to contain the situation last night.
A source said when Adeleke, Chairman of Senate Committee on Capital Market, complained of discomfort, he was rushed to Biket Hospital where he gave up the ghost.
One of the protesters alleged that the Senator ‘was killed with juju’. Some of the youths said Adeleke was poisoned “to pave the way for another APC governorship aspirant”.
Adeleke was nursing the ambition of contesting the 2018 election in the state.. He was governor between 1992 and 1993 in the Third Republic.
Some of the angry youths attacked Mr Tope Alabi, a correspondent of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Osogbo.
The NTA reporter, who was at the residence of ‘Serubawon’ as the politician was called with his cameraman, was attacked by youths for recording the faces of sympathisers.
The youths, who alleged that the late senator was poisoned, opposed video coverage of the event.
Alabi was assaulted on the head and had to be taken to Osogbo for treatment while his cameraman escaped to a nearby bush.
Security had, however, been beefed up at the residence as family members and friends awaited the burial of the late politician.
An Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) was stationed very close to Adeleke’s house while a police vehicle was sighted patrolling the town.
When the corpse was brought to his house in Ede, family members insisted on an autopsy.
A huge crowd of sympathisers and family members were seen weeping uncontrollably on sighting the corpse of the late flamboyant politician and socialite.
