•Against Gov. ADEYINKA ADEBAYO In 1969
The military government of the defunct Western State headed by the late Adeyinka Adebayo was overwhelmed by the chaos engendered by the tax hike in 1969 and was forced to seek a peaceful way to resolve the crisis. He slashed the revolt-invoking tax he earlier imposed on the people to appease the anger of the protesting Agbekoya, a group of farmers, led by the late Chief Tafa Adeoye.
The farmers were happy that they have won a war against the excess of the government that wanted to impoverish them.
They went home in jubilation. The peace was brokered by no less a personality than the first premier of the defunct Western Region, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The farmers believed that the crisis was settled and over for good. The Agbekoya members went about their daily chores and earning of their livelihood.
The government was, however, miffed. They were seething with anger. To them, the farmers have disgraced them and dragged them through the mud. The government an agent of the state is the most superior entity within its area of authority that takes no order from any person or corporate body. How could ordinary farmers whatever could be their source of power, be dictating how much they would pay as tax and rates to the government. What do they know about government?”
The outcome of the use of police and soldiers against the farmers to enforce payment of the tax had failed. Besides, the ego of the government had equally been bruished.
There was a need to retrieve the battered ego of the government from the quagmire it had been thrown. The enigma, Tafa Adeoye, who was impervious to bullets and tear gas, must be taught a lesson in captivity. He must be arrested without frontal confrontation, which they knew had not succeeded.
Unknowns to Chief Adeoye, who believed the crisis was over and was now enjoying the new status of champion of the oppressed, life had never been better. Now, he could advise the government, the authorities he had put to shame in the public. The government had, however, resolved not to let the disgrace meted out to them permanently stay to dent their image. They schemed to cut Chief Adeoye to size.
They literally laid siege to the leader of Agbekoya’s house at Elekuro area of Ibadan and even planted a lady under-cover Policewoman right in the Agbekoya leader’s residence. It was not difficult for the secret police lady to warm her way into the home and, of course, the heart of the then man of the moment.
Chief Adeoye, at the height of his popularity, had moved from Akaran, a rural community in Ibadan, to the metropolis after his victory in resisting prohibitive taxation. He ran what could be described as an impoverished court, where members of his association and other members of the public in the neighbourhood daily trooped to for one reason or the other. The undercover lady cop harnessed a medley crow as that was always present at Adeoye’s court to attract the attention of her target, Chief Adeoye and she succeeded.
That was how cupid’s arrow-shot by the beautiful lady hit the heart of the middle-aged farmers’ leader. One thing led to another. The cop eventually became Chief Adeoye’s youngest wife and the new face of Adeoye’s love life. The contradiction between the two was not only in age, one was in love, while the other was on duty. Yes, to deliver her supposed husband to the authorities. Remember how Judas Iscariot identified and delivered Jesus Christ to the Sadducees and scribes in the Bible.
Chief Adeoye could be described a human rights activist. He had confronted the authorities, not just a government, but a military government, a fascist administration that was not elected by the people and was not subject to legislature’s limitation. It was all-powerful as it could, with a decree, make the court’s judgement a nullity.
The government had arbitrally hiked tax to fund the then-raging civil war in the ‘60s. Taxation was the major source of revenue in that era. That was why the military government wanted to increase tax.
They, however, forgot that the farmers’ disposable income had reduced as cocoa price, the farmers’ source income, had fallen. No wonder the farmers literally went into war with the military government.
The protest, which led to the beheading of a king, Ogbomoso, Oba Olajide Olayode, five of his chiefs and one wife, reared its ugly head in a village in Ogbomoso where the poor farmers had been pushed to the end of their patience, burst out in anger and fiercely fought back. From one village to the other, their ranks swelled as they marched on Ibadan, the state capital. They burnt local council headquarters, government houses and offices were torched.
The riot police and soldiers drafted to confront and stop the rioters could not. Live bullets were fired at them when teargas canisters could not stop them.
The law enforcement agents were forced to retreat when it dawned on that despite their rifles and bullets they could not stop the Agbekoya. The farmers marched to the Prison Yard, Agodi, Ibadan burst the prison’s gates and freed their colleagues who had earlier been convicted, jailed for tax default and others in the yard.
What forced the military government to seek the assistance of the late Chief Awolowo for the peaceful resolution of the crisis was the bodily affliction the soldiers and policemen suffered on the course of their duties. Those who went to Akaran and Akufo, to their chagrin, found out that they could not remove or pull off their uniforms. It was pathetic and painful. Many of the cops and soldiers died in the course of removing their uniforms.
The planted secret policewoman had gone beyond being the favourite wife to a confidant of Chief Adeoye. He consulted her on virtually all his daily activities before taking action. At a point, the Agbekoya’s leader was invited to a public forum on taxation. The secret cop who had all the while posing as a wife was in the know of government scheming to arrest Adeoye at the forum.
She persuaded the farmers’ chief not to arm himself with his usual fortification armlets and others whenever he was going to a public gathering.
Chief Adeoye agreed with her and disarmed.
The hall was well set with top government officials in attendance. The leader of Agbekoya walked in and shown his seat. He never knew that it was his first port of call on his way to prison.
In the mid of observing the protocol and introduction of the attendees, a plain-clothed cop, a man, walked up to the head table where Chief Adeoye sat and arrested him. He succumbed as he was just at that moment an ordinary man as Samson in the Bible became after Delilah had shaved off the hair that was the source of Samson’s power.
-Tajudeen Adigun
