Kunle Akinrinade
For weeks, Adamu Markindo, a security guard, threatened to kill his colleague, Mohammed, but no one took him seriously. Those who waved his threats away as empty, however, knew better on December 6, 2019 when the Nigerien attached to the proposed site of a university in Ayepe Akirikan, a seedy community in Ewekoro Local Government Area, Ogun State, hacked Mohammed to death.
The horrific killing took place in the early hours of the day while the deceased, a Chadian, was still in bed. To accomplish his dastardly mission, Markindo was said to have attacked Mohammed in his sleep, making slim his chance of resistance before he was permanently silenced with Markindo’s machete.
And rather than bolt after the incident like such offenders are wont to do, Markindo was said to have waited audaciously to justify his action. It was then that it became clear to the shocked villagers that it was not an empty threat he repeatedly vowed to abbreviate his colleagues’ life.
Confessing to the crime, the unremorseful suspect said he killed Mohammed for cheating him whenever there was money to be share at work, the last of which was a sum of N200.
Markindo said: “I killed him because he was fond of cheating me whenever he shared money given to us at work. There was a time he denied me of my share of a sum of N100,000 he was asked by a man to share with me.
“Two days before the incident, somebody gave us the sum of N500 and he took the money without giving me my share. When I resumed for work in the morning, I asked him again and he said some one was going to bring N200.
“I told him that I was not happy he was offering me just N200 instead of sharing the money equally. Still, the person he promised would bring the money to me did not come at the close of work that day.
“The next day, I asked him again and he promised me again that someone was going to bring the money. I then reminded him that it was the same promise he made the previous day.
“As I tried to leave him alone, he became angry and held my hand, and I told him that I didn’t want to fight over a paltry sum of N200.
“Before I knew it, Mohammed slapped me. I asked him why he slapped me over N200, he held my hand again and wanted to beat me. It was then that I reached for a machete with which I hacked him to death on the spot. He actually provoked me into retaliating.”
He was promptly reported to the police at Itori Division and arrested. But while his case was transferred to the Homicide Section of the Ogun State Police Command in Abeokuta, the state capital, the family of the victim requested the body of their son for immediate burial in line with Islamic rites.
The body was released to the bereaved family for burial after the case was transferred back to Itori Division, backed with an affidavit endorsed by Itori Magistrate’s Court.
A few days later, Markndo was freed by the police and he sneaked into the community, sending residents into panic. He was said to have also threatened to deal ruthlessly with a housewife who deals in grocery in the community.
The woman, who requested anonymity, told The Nation that the returnee killer guard was in the habit of demanding a refund of his money after buying cigarettes and liquor from her.
She said: “He was in the habit of coming to my stall to buy liquor and cigarettes and return minutes later to demand a refund of the money he paid for the items, threatening to attack me if I failed to refund his money.
“He threatened me several times before he killed his partner at work. Since he returned, I have been living in fear and I cannot go out again without being accompanied for fear of being attacked by him.
Since his return, Markindo, who had restricted himself to a security post at the site of the university he was employed to guard, had been going out occasionally until he was sighted in the community on January 1, 2020.
Furious youths of the community as well as the elders quickly intercepted him and informed the Itori Police Divisional Police Officer on the phone. The DPO initially agreed that the suspect be returned to the station but policemen at the station turned the villagers back when they took the suspect to the station and asked them to take him back to their community.
When our reporter sighted the suspect in the boot of the car in which he was conveyed to the station, he explained that he had nowhere to stay because his family members were in Niger Republic.
Markindo said: “I don’t have any place to go or stay. I don’t have any family member here. They are all in Niger (Republic). I sneaked into the building (university site) through the perimeter fence and slept there yesterday.
“I have been working there in the last two years and I know the terrain very well.
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“As for the woman who claimed that I had been threatening him, I did not do anything to her at all. I only asked her to give me anything she feels like giving me from what she sells, but instead she would abused me. I don’t know what I have done to her.’’
A resident, Olawale Adeniyi, said the community was shocked that the police could free a murder suspect, noting that Markindo’s return posed serious danger to the community.
He said: “This is the first time in the history of this ancient community that someone would be killed in cold blood. And it amazes me that someone who admitted to killing his colleague in cold blood would be freed by the police.
Since he returned to town, residents have been living in fear. As a matter of fact, we no longer sleep with our eyes closed for fear of being attacked by him.
“This would not be happening if the police had not releasedhim. The police should have considered the consequence of releasing him wen justice has not been served in the matter.
“For us, we do not want him in our community because he’s already tainted. A killer is a killer any day.”
One of the youth leaders in the community who spoke in confidence said: “He and his late colleague were employed as security men to keep watch over the site of the proposed university owned by a popular college in Lagos.
“We thought he was joking when he said that he hated his colleague. He was fond of saying that we should mark his words; that he would one day kill Mohammed. But we thought he was joking until he murdered the man.
“All we are saying is that he should not have been freed from police custody, because that amounts to abandoning the case and emboldening the suspect to commit further grizzly crimes. Now that he has been rejected by the police, we are living in fear.
“We have since contacted his employers and they have promised to evacuate him from this community. But we are disappointed that they did not turn up as promised.”
Sources in the community confirmed to The Nation on Thursday that Mohammed has since been evacuated and returned to his home country.
“On Tuesday, the proprietor of a Lagos-based college, which owns the site of the proposed private university, eventually sent some people including the agent through which the suspected killer got the security job, and they have taken him away.
“They promised that he would never return to our community and that they are returning him to Niger Republic,’’ a source in the community said.
Contacted, the spokesman of the Ogun State Police Command, Mr Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), promised to get back to our reporter. He, however, had not done so at press time.
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