The masked gunmen that attacked and killed Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, the 58-year-old second daughter of Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, hit her with five bullets, an investigation by The Crest has revealed.
A source close to the State Hospital, Akure, told The Crest, Saturday, that doctors extracted five bullets from different parts of Mrs Olakunrin’s body before she was confirmed dead.
This was corroborated by a source close to the police.
Mrs. Olakunrin was the third child of Chief Fasoranti, and second daughter of the Yoruba leader. She was also the second daughter that the Afenifere leader has lost, after the demise of his eldest child shortly after his wife died.
Recalling how his boss was gruesomely killed, Tayo Ogundare, driver to the late Mrs. Olakunrin, said they had made a stop-over at Ore to have some soft drinks before continuing their journey.
“As we approached the toll gate,” Ogundare continued, “we stated hearing gunshots. Mummy asked me: ‘Tayo what is this?’ I said it’s gunshot. Mummy said: ‘Ha, it is these people o’. After a while, we saw six masked men coming out of the bush. They started shooting at us.
“Mummy said I should reverse. I started to reverse. As I tried to reverse, they followed us, shooting. They sprayed our vehicle with bullets. Our car hit the culvert and the vehicle tumbled. I escaped through the broken glass and ran in to the bush.
“As I tried to escape, I heard mummy saying: ‘I have been shot. I have been shot.’ We ran into the bush.
“Later on, we heard that the police had taken mummy to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, they told us mummy had died.”
Confusion continues to trail the true identity of the gunmen that attacked the late Mrs. Olakunrin.
While Afenifere, through its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, insisted that their leader’s daughter was killed by “Fulani herdsmen”, the Ondo State Police Command said it was too premature to state who did it and where they came from since no arrest had been made.
Femi Joseph, the command’s spokesman said: “No, you can’t shave the head of a man in his absence. You have to wait for us to arrest them. Somebody you have not arrested, it is difficult for you to establish his ethnicity.”
Then, Joseph went ahead to narrate how the tragedy unfurled.
“It happened at a spot between Kajola and Ore, where some hoodlums numbering about 15, attacked two vehicles, one Toyota Land Cruiser and one Camry.
“The Land Cruiser was carrying five passengers, including the deceased, who we later identified as one Funke Olakunrin.
“They shot the woman, we rushed her to the hospital, but we lost her.
“Other four occupants that were abducted, we have rescued them.
“Inside the Camry too, we had three occupants, they were also abducted, but we have rescued them. We have rescued a total of seven persons taken during the attack.
“There is still one person left that we are still looking for, and we are working frantically to ensure that the hoodlums are brought to justice and ensure any other hostage were rescued.”
In all, Mr. Joseph said 26 people involved in the attack by the gunmen but that only Mrs. Oolakunrin died. And while he claimed that the police rescued seven out of the eight
people kidnapped by the gunmen, he said efforts were ongoing to liberate the remaining lone hostage.
However, a question mark hangs on the claim that the victims were abducted and rescue. The driver and cook to Mrs. Olakunrin told newsmen in Akure that they ran into the bush when the gunmen struck. And that they only discovered that their principal had died when they got to the State Hospital in Akure.
As the confusion on the identity of Mrs. Olakunrin’s killers continued to rage, Saturday, another source corroborated the claim by the Presidency that the killers were armed robbers. However, The Crest learnt that the attackers never took anything from the car of the deceased.
As things are now, the question of whether armed robbers or killer herders murdered Mrs. Olakunrin will continue to hang until the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, makes good his pledge to speedily hunt, capture and bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to justice.
In the meantime, a besieged nation waits with arms crossed.