Landlords at Oloja Ibala via Osunjela in the Atakumosa West Local Government Area of Osun State have called on the police to free three landlords arrested in connection with the release of the nude video of the Majority Leader of the Osun State House of Assembly, Mr Timothy Owoeye.

The landlords, who also alleged police clampdown on the community, told PUNCH Metro that the community had become deserted because of fear of arrest.

They said three of the persons arrested by the police in connection with Owoeye’s nude video – Niyi Oyebamiji, Kehinde Awodunmola and Ismail Azeez – were neither kidnappers nor armed robbers as alleged by the police.

The spokesperson for the landlords, Mr Taiwo Adewumi,  told PUNCH Metro that one of the residents of Olojaibala, Evangelist Adewoyin, a motorcyclist was returning home at around 12 midnight on July 7, 2018, and found a strange vehicle parked in the bush in the community.

He said after a while, the evangelist found a man stark naked coming towards the car, adding that Adewoyin raised the alarm and many residents of the community trooped out and beat up the man, thinking that he was a thief.

He said, “We saw blood and a bowl inside his car. We had already beat him up before he told us that he was a member of the state House of Assembly. It was around 1am when this happened. He promised to give us N500,000 as his contribution to our electricity pole project.

“We informed the monarch in Osunjela and we gave him a video clip upon demand. It was about two weeks that another member of the House of Assembly gave us N10,000. One of the community leaders also brought N100,000 for our electricity. We have left everything for the monarch until one day when they arrested one man that we call Sango. We went to the police headquarters to know why he was arrested and they detained Oyebam Awodunmola and Azeez. They asked us toproduce the mon givto uand we gave them the N110,000 they gave us.”

Adewumi said the landlords knew nothing about those defrauding the lawmaker. He stated that the three landlords were among the residents that came out in the middle of the night to see the naked man who was later found to be a lawmaker.

He, however, said he could not speak for other persons arrested because the community did not know them.