Osun’s government moved to contain a violent dispute over park leadership after a senior Accord Party figure was killed in Ile‑Ife on Sunday. Olalekan Ajagungbade, known locally as Emir, died after a confrontation linked to control of the Mayfair motor park, officials said.
Witnesses and a security source placed the incident at a meeting near Mayfair at about 1:20 pm, with a distress call reaching authorities around 1:25 pm. The source said Ajagungbade and his supporters clashed with a man identified as Sibi, and that Ajagungbade suffered a gunshot wound to the head during the scuffle. A video circulating on social media showed him lying face down in a vehicle with visible blood.
Police secured the Mayfair Motor Park after the killing, and the security source added that the vehicle carrying Sibi and others later collided with an 18-seater bus on the Ife-Ibadan Expressway. Attempts to obtain an official comment from the Osun State Police Command public relations officer, Abiodun Ojelabi, were unsuccessful as calls and messages to his mobile line went unanswered.
Gunfire was also reported in parts of the state capital, Osogbo, where residents in Isale Osun and Asoje said shots were heard and many stayed indoors. Those accounts amplified concern that the violence could spread across the state’s transport hubs, which have long been arenas for local political influence.
In a statement signed by the governor’s spokesperson Olawale Rasheed, Governor Ademola Adeleke directed Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Zungura to arrest everyone involved in the killing immediately. The statement said the death allegedly stemmed from a park leadership dispute, ordered that warring groups vacate motor parks at once and announced plans to reintroduce a Park Management System to regulate parks and garages.
The governor said he would issue an executive order to put the new management framework in place and instructed security agencies to restore and sustain peace. "Act immediately to arrest all those involved. Law and order must be maintained. There will be no sacred cows as all culprits will be brought to book," the statement said. Authorities face an immediate task: carry out arrests, stabilise affected sites and implement the promised regulatory change for motor parks.
