Gunmen have shot dead a security guard identified as Sunday who manned a filling station at Igoba community in the Akure-North Local Government Area of Ondo State, on Monday.

After killing the guard, the gunmen also reportedly set the filling station on fire.

Speaking on the incident, the station manager, Ajisafe Oluwatobiloba, said he got notified about the fire incident but could not trace anyone responsible for the act.

He said, “In the morning, I was called by one of the residents, and on getting here, we saw the station burning, we called the fire service and they came to stop the fire not knowing the perpetrators had killed our security guard.

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“While trying to figure out what could have caused the fire, we saw where the guard was tied and killed. We also saw the keg used by the arsonist filled with petrol which must have been used to wet the station before setting it on fire.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs Funmi Odunlami, who confirmed the incident, said investigation was ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to it.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has secured 984 convictions since January this year.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohammed Buba Marwa, who disclosed this on Monday, said the convictions were on drug-related offences.

Marwa spoke at his residence in Yola while receiving newly elected executives of the Adamawa State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), saying the Nigerian population still has a huge percentage that depends on hard drugs.

He said about 15 million out of the 200 million Nigerians are into drugs and many of them are addicted.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari has launched War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) to reinvigorate the fight against hard drugs.

According to him, more rehabilitation centres are on the way across the nation.

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He advocated collective efforts, with the media playing a vital part, in safeguarding the nation against hard drugs.

Buba Marwa who congratulated his visitors over their victory at the recent NUJ council election, charged them to champion the fight against drug abuse.

Speaking earlier, the state Chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Ishaka Dedan pledged the union’s cooperation in enlightening the public on the scourge of hard drugs.

Children who were among the 77 individuals rescued from the subterranean cell of the Whole Bible Believers Church, also known as “Ondo Church,” in Ondo West Local Government Area, have refused to follow their parents home until their pastors are freed by the police.

As the parents of the majority of the victims sobbed over their children’s refusal to return home with them as a result of the purported hypnosis, the twist only seemed more unbelievable on Monday at the police headquarters.

Some of the parents who besieged the police headquarters of the Ondo Command said their kids vowed not to leave the station until the pastors who were detained are released.

The parents complained that “black magic” had been used on the kids and insisted that the victims needed to undergo a comprehensive psychological evaluation.

Michael Olohunyomi, the father of one of the victims, revealed that his daughter Priscilla, 21, had been refusing to eat since Saturday because she believed the pastor should be freed.

“I was a member of that church and I was there for 32 years,” the bereaved father cried. When Peter Josiah was appointed as the church’s assistant pastor, everything about it changed. He introduced harmful heresy.”

Wande Oladapo, a victim’s brother, expressed shock that his 40-year-old sibling could be hypnotized and stated, “My brother has refused to go home after he was discharged on Saturday. He vowed not to leave his pastor in the cell unattended.

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Funmilayo Odunlami, the state’s police public relations officer, commented on the development, saying, “Despite all of our efforts and attempts to appease them, someTension In Ondo Over Alleged Plan By Bandits To Attack Community of the victims refused to go home and insisted that they would stay here.

“One of our children declared that she would rather follow the Lord than her parents.”

The State Commissioner for Women Affairs and social development, Princess Bunmi Osadahun said, the state government was working towards rehabilitating the victims.