Prominent Bizman Assasinated Inside Church In Ijebu

The entire Íjẹ̀bú Land was brought under a state of trepidation following the assassination of a foremost industrialist, Chief Tola Okuneye, popularly known as Tola Furniture.

Details are still muddled as at the time of filing this report, but the assassination, eyewitnesses said, occurred at about 11 a.m during Sunday service at St. John’s Anglican Church, Oke-Sopin, Íjẹ̀bú Igbo, the council seat of Íjẹ̀bú North Local Government Area in Ogun State.

The Late Okuneye was said to be giving the Sunday sermon when the assassins stormed the church and swiftly carried out the execution.

Assassins rumored to be cultists.

Some of the eyewitnesses who spoke with The Scoop over the telephone said the assassination might not be unconnected with the recent killing of a notorious cult leader popularly known as Ja Rule.

Ja Rule, one of the sources claimed, was allegedly killed four weeks ago on the orders of Chief Okuneye who said he was constituting a security threat to residents of the town.

“It was Tola Furniture who ordered the assassination of Ja Rule just last month and I think that’s why some cult members decided to retaliate against him. Too bad this happened in the church,” a source who craved anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter told The Scoop on Sunday afternoon.

Another eyewitness, who preferred to be identified simply as Doctor, said he saw the Late Okuneye when be was driving to the church around 10 a.m.

“He drove by us at the People’s Parliament where we usually gather to discuss major political events every morning,” he said.

“It was just about an hour-plus later that people started screaming from that direction that Tola Furniture has been assassinated. I rushed to the church and I met his lifeless body laying in a paramedic vehicle outside.”

When The Scoop pressed Doctor further on the possible motives of the assassins, he said:

“I don’t know why anyone would want to kill him because he was the pillar in charge of the security apparatus of this town. He was the coordinator of the Ogun State Vigilance Services in this local government and he was largely responsible for the incessant bank robbery that has been abated over the past 2 years in this town.”

The famous industrialist was said to be 65 years old.