A commissioner in the Ondo State Oil Development Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Kehinde Akinrotoye, has alleged that hoodlums attacked him on Wednesday on the order of the commission’s chairman, Sam Erejuwa.

Speaking to The Gazette on his hospital bed in Akure on Thursday, where he’s currently recuperating, the commissioner claimed he was assaulted after he demanded an equitable distribution of bursary and scholarship awards for students from Ondo Central and Ondo North senatorial districts.

“The chairman (Erejuwa) ordered his security and thugs to beat me because of my agitation that students from Ondo North and Ondo Central must get their quota,” said Mr Akinrotoye.

The commissioner said he earlier protested against the lopsidedness in the disbursement of the bursary to only students from Ondo South, believed to be from the mandate area.

“I am now asking for our quota in OSOPADEC. Students from Ondo North and Ondo Central were excluded. Mr Governor appointed me to represent my people. I should ask for their quota,” he said.

Mr Akinrotoye was beaten to a pulp and narrowly escaped death when over 20 hoodlums stormed the OSOPADEC office in the Oba Ile area of Akure, disrupting the annual disbursement of bursary and scholarship awards to undergraduate students.

Peoples Gazette had reported that a Sienna vehicle conveying Mr Akinrotoye to the office was vandalised and destroyed by the armed hoodlums who forced their way into the premises of the commission with guns and other dangerous weapons.

Revealing that it took the intervention of the police from the Oba Ile Division to rescue him from the hoodlums, the commissioner denied bringing thugs to the venue for reprisal attacks in the commission’s office.

“It is a lie that I brought thugs to the venue. I only brought students to demand bursary for themselves,” he added.

Several efforts to get comments from Mr Erejuwa over the allegation proved abortive as the OSOPADEC chairman repeatedly hung off the phone with The Gazette’s reporter.

On Wednesday night, Mr Erejuwa told this outlet to contact the police command for a reaction to an incident that sources claimed happened right in the glue of his eyes.

The state police, through its spokesperson, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, said an investigation has been launched into the case, as the hoodlums have been declared wanted.

Meanwhile, the Ekimogun Youths Connect president, a socio-community group, Famakinwa Lucaskakaki, said the youths would not join issues with its counterpart in the mandate area and not take laws into their own hands but would rather engage the security agents to do their job.