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According to a report by Daily Post, tears flowed freely yesterday in Ekiti State as the remains of a policeman killed by suspected kidnappers, Inspector Adewumi Abiola, was interred in Igbemo Ekiti, Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state.
Abiola was shot dead on June 16, a day after celebrating his 40th birthday, by kidnappers, who abducted two Chinese contractors in Odeda, Ogun State.
The late Police Inspector, who was attached to “P Department Operations”, Oyo State Command, was an escort to the Chinese contractors handling the Ogun/Oyo State Railway project before his killing.
His corpse was brought from Ibadan by a team of police officers, who accorded their colleague his last respect at his ongoing building project in Igbemo Ekiti, where he was buried.
The late Inspector was survived by an 80-year old mother, Mrs Olubiyo Abiola, a young wife and four female children, who are still in primary school.
Describing the death as traumatising, the slain policeman’s elder sister, Mrs Caroline Bamigboye, and Uncle, Taiwo Ogunrinde, who led family members to the site in Odeda, said Abiola was buried quickly because over 20 bullets pierced his body and were difficult to remove.
The former Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti Council, and an uncle to the deceased, High Chief Laolu Omosilade, applauded the efforts of the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mrs Vivian Ngozi Onadeko, for her swift action that hastened the release of the body for burial.
Omosilade called on Chinese, CCECC Railway Construction Company, Ologuneru, the police authority, the Oyo and Ekiti State governments, to assist the late cop’s mother, wife and children.
“The most pathetic aspect of the old woman was the fact that his brother, who had a hunchback, was also gruesomely murdered by alleged ritualists about four years ago along Aramoko /Itawure road, in Ekiti State.
“The woman is seriously troubled and traumatised. She relied on Adewumi for survival and that life support has been removed now. People must show empathy towards this distraught woman.
“They must come out and display humanitarian help towards her as a citizen of this nation”, the ex-NUJ chief said.
The deceased was said to have been murdered while trying to protect the expatriates from abduction at a site in Ogun State .
The kidnappers, numbering eight, who besieged the quarry site of the Chinese contractors, after trailing four other Chinese expatriates from Abeokuta in Ogun State, who visited their colleagues at the CCECC Railway construction company site in Ibadan, reportedly rained bullets on the deceased’s body, killing him on the spot.
Meanwhile, the abducted Chinese contractors were said to have been released from captivity, having paid a huge ransom.