Some suspected cultists on Tuesday night shot dead a 28-year-old driver, Abraham Umar at Cele bus stop, Ijanikin, Lagos outskirts.
Abraham popularly called Abi, was a commercial bus driver on Badagry expressway, Lagos.
The Nation gathered that Abraham had closed for the day on Tuesday night and went to eat at his girlfriend’s mother’s shop when a group of about nine boys surrounded him, shot him in the head and died on the spot.
When The Nation visited his house yesterday, Abraham’s distraught mother, was still in shock.
His sister, Aminat Umar said Abraham called her that Tuesday around 9:21 pm.
She said: “He (Abraham) asked if I was back from work and told me that he was on his way home. About 10 minutes later, Peter and Naomi rushed to our house, shouting and banging on the gate that we should come out, saying ‘Abi had been shot at Cele Bus stop and that his body has been taken to the police station’.
“My mother and uncle quickly ran to the station but they were told that nobody was brought there. They went to check at Ademola Hospital but they were told that the body was not brought there, so they went back to the police station. The police later admitted that the body was at the station, but they locked the body in the cell claiming he was a cultist.”
Abraham’s uncle, Muhammed Umaru, said the late Abraham had been receiving threat messages from some boys.
“Some boys have been telling my son to leave his girlfriend alone that she belongs to one of them and I was told that the girl is very dangerous. My son kept saying everything was fine. I was told by my son’s friend, Peter that the boy sending my son those messages confronted them once; he wore dreadlocks and dark in complexion.
“I reported Abraham to his aunty and uncle; they warned the girl to stay away from him and also warned him to leave the girl alone but he did not listen,” Umaru said.
The girl in question, who gave her name as Arigi Precious Elo, was not remorseful when police arrested her.
Elo, 17, said Abi was her only boyfriend.
Elo said: “I didn’t see Abi on Tuesday night. He called and asked me if he should wait for me at my mother’s shop but I said ‘no’ that I was at my brother’s place at Ajegunle and I will not be coming back because we are planning my brother’s wedding. Today (yesterday), people started calling me, saying Abi has been killed. I didn’t know about any threat message because Abi did not tell me anything.”
A source told The Nation that Elo is a “notorious girl and belongs to a cult group.”
The source said: “She is seen at all the club houses and hotels here. She sleeps around with with men for money. Two of her sisters are said to be in Italy prostituting and her mother is preparing to send her to Dubai. In fact, her travelling documents are ready. Should be travelling in two weeks’ time. I wonder what that gentle boy was doing with her. She is not a good girl.”
An eyewitness, who did not wants to be named, said the boys came in a group after Abi parked his vehicle near the shop.
“He was with his conductor and the owner of the commercial bus when one of the boys tapped him at the back, another pushed and slammed his head on the wall. Then, one of them put the gun on his head and shot him.
“I was surprised because his girlfriend, Elo was with them. Everybody ran away, leaving his body at the scene while she left with the killers,” he said.
A neighbour said Elo lives with her mother, who owns the shop where Abi was killed.
She said: “Her father had relocated to the village and his (Elo’s father) friend is allegedly sleeping with her mother. He even lives with them in the house. Elo once told me that she doesn’t respect her father’s friend and her mother because they are shameless people. She said that is why she does whatever she likes and doesn’t listen to them.”
A middle-age man said Ijanikin is a haven for cultists.
“They go into houses, kill and butcher people. As I am talking to you, a whole family are in the hospital. They were attacked and butchered by these boys. Two weeks ago, two boys were shot dead at a bus stop because they refused to release their phones.
“The Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) is not left out. Some notorious boys steal and attack people in the school premises. We are not safe in Ijanikin,” the source said.
Ijanikin Police Station Divisional Police Officer (DPO) said he received the report that a boy was shot and also a message from someone that the boy had been receiving threat messages from the killers.
He said he learnt that the late Umar’s girlfriend and her mother knew about the messages.