A Deputy Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) in charge of Ijebu-Ode was brutally assaulted Monday at what critics have described as an illegal and stage-managed APC senatorial endorsement gathering, in a violent incident that has drawn sharp condemnation and triggered warrant of arrest proceedings against key aides and appointees of Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun.
The DSS operative, identified as Taiwo Samson, was attacked at the APC Senatorial Stakeholders Caucus Meeting held at Adeola Odutola Hall in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun East Senatorial District. His clothes were reportedly torn and soaked as he was beaten to a stupor by political thugs that sources identified as operatives loyal to the governor.
Named in connection with the assault are Biyi Adeleye, Danku, Adunmo, and Tunde Diya, all identified as aides and appointees of Governor Abiodun. Warrants of arrest have since been issued for their immediate apprehension. According to security sources, the suspects are to be released only upon the installation of ankle monitoring parole devices, a condition that underscores the gravity with which the attack on a serving state security officer is being treated.
The violence unfolded against the backdrop of a politically charged gathering that Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, the incumbent Ogun East senator and former governor of the state, was physically barred from attending. Daniel, who arrived at the venue as early as 10:00 a.m., was blocked at the entrance while his bus was reportedly surrounded and prevented from gaining access.
“Today is our caucus meeting in Ijebu-Ode. I got here since 10:00 a.m., but they said I can not enter,” Daniel told supporters gathered outside. He further declared that any resolution reached in his absence would be null and void.
The exclusion of Daniel and the attack on a DSS operative at the same event have merged into a single explosive political flashpoint, with both developments pointing, critics say, to a calculated attempt by forces loyal to Governor Abiodun to steamroll the senatorial ticket process in Ogun East ahead of the 2027 cycle.
This is not the first time Biyi Adeleye and Danku have come under official security caution. Both men have a documented record of involvement in violent political incidents, and security sources say their respective records had already reached a threshold before Monday’s attack tipped matters into a criminal enforcement response.
The assault on a DSS deputy director in Ijebu-Ode has drawn uncomfortable historical comparisons. The last time a ranking security officer was attacked in the district, it was the Area Commander of Ijebu-Ode, Omilodun, who was murdered in Ijebuife by an irate crowd. That incident led to the immediate sack of the Local Government Council Chairman, Tunde Oladunjoye, after findings established his complicity in the circumstances surrounding the security attack. Legal and political observers are watching closely to see whether Monday’s attack will produce accountability of similar weight.
Anger in Ijebu-Ode has been simmering well before Monday’s events. Youths in the district, openly aligned with Daniel and his political standing within the Ijebu socio-political hierarchy, have vowed to resist what they describe as an organised takeover of the Ogun East senatorial seat by Abiodun and his associates. Daniel’s standing in Ijebu-land runs deep — he holds the title of Otunba Obalofin of Ijebuland and is one of only three privileged members of the Awujale Royal Court, alongside Mike Adenuga Jr., the Apesin Awujale, and Chief Sunny Kuku, the Ogbeni Oja of Ijebuland. His dual roots in the Jadiara-Fushengbuwa ruling house of Ijebu-Ode and the Ojelobaye Abamba Dynasty of Sagamu make him, to his supporters, not merely a politician but a son of the soil.
That a sitting governor’s aides would physically assault a DSS operative at a meeting from which a sitting senator was barred has widened the political wound in Ogun East significantly. Political watchers say the incident lays bare the increasingly desperate measures being deployed by the Abiodun camp as the contest for the APC’s senatorial ticket for Ogun East intensifies.
For Governor Abiodun, the political cost of Monday’s events may prove difficult to contain. Calls are growing for all culprits to be placed on security parole with ankle monitoring devices and for their formal blacklisting as security threats in Ogun State. The warrants of arrest already issued suggest that the security and judicial machinery, at least in part, has been set in motion.
Whether it moves fast enough and reaches far enough remains the question Ijebu-Ode is now waiting to have answered.
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