Who killed Mufutau Olanipekun, a prominent member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the Foko area of Ibadan? That is one mystery the police in Oyo State are striving hard to unravel.
Having contributed to the success of his party in the just concluded general elections in Oyo state, particularly in his Foko area, an interior part of Ibadan where he mobilized the youths to vote massively for the ACN, he had hoped that his efforts would be appreciated with either an appointment or contract awards.

Even, some of his family members had already started thinking in the same direction. And to make things easy for him, youths in the area had started touting 51-year-old Olanipekun, a patent medicine dealer, as the next councillor for the area. Anytime, they saw him, shouts of “Honourable” usually rented the air. However, his dream of moving to the next level in his political career was abruptly brought to an end on Monday, May 23, 2011. On the fateful day, some merchants of death, numbering about six, stormed his Foko residence around 3.00a.m and silenced him forever.

According to reports, Olanipekun was in his bedroom with his wife of 10 years, Bunmi, when the assailants arrived. Taiwo and Kehinde, his twin sons from his estranged wife, were sleeping in the sitting room. Bereaved Bunmi and Kehinde, who tried unsuccessfully to hold back tears as they spoke with Daily Sun, said his assailants told the deceased before he was killed that he was too stubborn. They thereafter shot him at close range in his left arm, leaving him in a pool of his own blood without stealing anything from the room.

It was gathered that the gunmen had entered the bungalow by breaking in through the ceiling of the house. One of them, in an attempt to jump in, fell into some buckets of water at the passage. The resultant noise, according to one of the neighbours who craved anonymity, woke up some of the residents.“Immediately they saw me, they held me,” Kehinde said. “And because I only had my towel on at the time, they ordered me to wear my pair of knickers, which I did. They tied my hands and blindfolded me before they forced their way into Olanipekun’s room. I later heard a gunshot. By the time they left and I was left off the hook, I discovered that the deceased had been killed.”

Not believing that the man who was loved by everyone had been killed, residents of the area besieged his Ile Atere residence, only to see his blood-stained lifeless body on the floor of his bedroom. Mr. Ayo Olatunji, the head of the family, told Daily Sun: “I could not even look at the corpse. I was too shock and frightened. This is somebody that I saw on Sunday only for me to be called on the telephone at about 6am on Monday that he had been killed. This is pure wickedness.”

Bunmi, amidst tears, described the death of her husband as shocking and unbelievable. She described her late husband as a gentleman who, she said, hated being involved in any controversial issue and easily got bored with arguments.“He did not tell me that he had any disagreement or any deal whatsoever with anybody. As regards his political ambition, it is the youths of this area that were calling on him to contest as the next councillor after his efforts for ACN in the last election, but he kept telling them to wait and see how things would go.”
She said her husband had told her, after returning from the party’s meeting the previous day that he observed many strange faces while the meeting was on. “He did not tell me that he had any disagreement with anybody there,” the widow further said.

Kehinde, a National Diploma student of The Polytechnic Ibadan, in his reaction, said it was shocking seeing his father killed in his presence while watching helplessly. He said he had escaped through the same ceiling broken by the assailant alongside his twin brother. He lamented that he was no longer sure of the fate that would befall his education and that of his twin brother, an Accountancy student of the same institution as a result of their father’s death, especially as their own mother had long been separated from the deceased (their father).

After the assailants had completed their devilish assignment and the deceased had been despatched to his early death, many people from far and near continued to converge on the home of the late politician, weeping and mourning the wicked act. The case was immediately reported at the Iyaganku Central Police Station in Ibadan.
The remains of the deceased were buried the same day in accordance with Islamic injunction.
The state police command has since vowed to unravel the mysterious death.