Bloody Murders at Dawn in Ikorodu
Gunmen suspected to be cultists invaded two homes in Ikorodu and blotted out two lives. ANYIM JOY NDUDI reports the sorry tale of a man killed in the presence of his family and another dragged from his wife in bed and hacked to death.
It was indeed a bloody Tuesday to remember for residents of Market Street in the Odogunyan area of Ikorodu in Lagos on the 7th of April.
The gunmen, suspected to be cultists, stormed Market Street, Odogunyan, where Ayodele Adefiwaju lived, at midnight and shot him dead.
Not done, they were said to have proceeded to neighbouring Olaleye Street, where they shot Lateef who was in bed with his wife several times but the bullets bounced off Lateef. In anger they dragged him outside the house and hacked him to death with machete.
Daily Times gathered that the suspects who were heavily armed and wore masks on their faces stormed the area at about mid night to unleash their terror. It was also learnt that the suspected cultists who fled after the crime are yet to be arrested by the police.
According to the wife of lateef, who gave her name simply as Mrs Ogunsanya, “At about 11 pm on Tuesday, we were about going to bed that night when we heard a hard knock on our door. My husband myself and our two children were in the room when the attackers stormed our house. We thought they were armed robbers, but we later discovered they were not. About six masked men who were carrying guns and other weapons attacked my husband. Two of them opened fire on my husband but it did not penetrate, they then dragged him out of the room to the sitting room.
“I was pleading with them out of fear but they were bent on killing him. My first daughter who is about ten years old was even running after them begging them to live her dad, but they refused. They took my husband out and killed him.” she said in tears.
Wife of Ayodele, whose name was given as Adeola had travelled to Ibadan at the time of the incident. She was only informed of her husband’s death on phone. She wrote in her statement, “I am a business woman and my business is mainly based in Ibadan. So for the purpose of convenience I and our daughter spend more time in Ibadan. I am however very surprised with this incident. My husband was never a bad man the only thing I can remember is one incident that happened some months back.
“While we were still leaving in the Ogijo area of Ogun state, my husband ran home on a particular day saying he was been chased by some men with guns. As a result of that incident, we moved out of that area to Odogunyan in Ikorodu. But unfortunately they still trailed him to this place. One thing I know is that my husband was not a cultist and I don’t know why they killed him.”
The case which was earlier reported at the Sagamu road police station has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for proper investigation.