Residents of Agodo in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State have deserted the village following the brutal killing of their monarch, Ayinde Odetola.

UGAMATV had on Monday reported that Odetola was murdered by some hoodlums, who invaded the town.

The monarch was said to have been murdered alongside three of his sons and aide.

It was gathered that the deceased called a meeting to settle a protracted feud over land allocation in the community but shortly after the meeting got underway, some irate youth invaded the palace, burnt the traditional ruler and his three sons to death.

The Owu Kingdom of Egbaland, under whose jurisdiction Agodo community falls, on Thursday issued a statement noting that the land dispute in the community had caused bad blood between Odetola and people of the community.

The Akogun Owu, Ishola Akinsipo, who questioned the legitimacy of Odetola’s kingship, dismissed claims that the violence was triggered by a rift between Owu and Ake on who has authority to install a king in the village.

The statement reads, “The insinuation is far from the truth as on no occasion has the Agodo community, with a Baale, contested or applied to Olowu or Alake Egba for the uplifting of their Baale to coronet.

“From time immemorial, Agodo village which has been a multi-clan community from Abeokuta had been in peace until some six years ago when some hoodlums besieged the environment to grab the community’s land.

“Reports available at our disposal in Owu Kingdom indicate the man who claimed to be Oba in Agodo village had been involved in land disputes with Agodo people which had caused bad blood among him, accompanied hoodlums and the Agodo community.”

According to the statement, the community was thrown into crisis in 2016 following an alleged attempt by the deceased and some thugs to bury a corpse in Agodo Village as a decoy to establish ancestry to the land.

“By the directive of Olowu Kangunere, Oba Olusanya Adegboyega Dosunmu, Olowu of Owu, Oba Olufemi Ogunleye, Towulade Akinale, was deployed to visit Agodo Village and ensure there was peace. The report of a meditative meeting in Agodo, suing for peace and co-existence of the community was published in a news magazine, The Village Network, vol. 3 No 5 (2016).

“The Agodo community as of today has denied their knowledge of any king, and the deceased monarch has no physical presence nor a palace in Agodo,” the statement added.

However, silence has been observed in the community as nobody was around to speak on the issue.

According to reports, a passerby, who identified himself as Raheem, said he cannot afford to wait to speak with our reporter for five minutes as he was only was there to pick some of his clothes and return to hiding.

Meanwhile, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told journalists that the command has been assuring residents to return to their homes.

He said, “We have been trying our best in speaking to the residents that we are on top of the matter, despite our promise of adequate protection, they have all abandoned their houses.

“I can assure you we will arrest them all, in fact, we are closing up on them. They have no hiding place in Ogun here. We would bring them all to book soonest.”