The murder of three men within two days by unknown persons has thrown the Abule Oke community, Iyana-Ilogbo in Ogun State into panic. Taiwo Abiodun recently visited the community and reports
Two days after Abiodun Adebesin Omoola, 52, a carpenter, died in a controversial circumstance, two private security guards Jimoh Adegbite, 51, and Lukmon Alapomu, 49, were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the dead of night. The three deaths have thrown fear into their neighbourhood.
Samsudeen Azeez and Kazeem Omotoso who both claimed to have narrowly escaped being murdered. According to the duo, who spoke to The Nation from their hideouts, they are counting their days on earth and living everyday as a bonus because they believed those who killed their friends would do same to them. They have therefore vowed not to return to their places until they are sure of their safety.
“Since January 4, there has been tension within Abule- Oke in Iyana Ilogbo, Cele and Ilepa/ Ilupeju communities in Ifo Local Government, Area of Ogun State. The tension has led to fear, making people go to bed as early as 7pm to avoid being molested by some suspected land speculators who are suspected to be behind the killings.
When The Nation visited the community and the scene of the murder, some areas had been deserted and the silence of a graveyard ruled. Many had fled to avoid arrest by law- enforcement officers, while some spoke in hushed tones. Members of the community now sleep with one eye open and have decided to keep sealed lips to avoid being quoted over the fear that the suspected assassins could descend and snuff life out of them as they did to the two vigilante men whom they believed were tricked and killed to avoid exposing them.
Whodunit?
Now, the question on everybody’s lips is: Who killed the duo? Adegbite and Alapomu’s bodies were riddled with bullets and deep cuts when their corpses were discovered in the early morning of January 6th. It was alleged that some people raised alarm that the community was being attacked by robbers, and when Adegbite and Alapomu came out to face the bandits, the two of them were mowed down. It is believed that the alarm was raised to lure the two to their death. So, who raised the false alarm and called the members of the Vigilante Group in Ifo Local Government ? Who could have masterminded their killings? What connection did the killings have with the late carpenter, Omoola, who was killed two days earlier? These are some of the questions the Iyana Ilogbo and Ilepa Communities are begging the Inspector General of Police in Abuja to unravel for the past few weeks.
According to some of the community members , justice cannot be done unless the case is transferred from Ogun State Command to Abuja. The residents expressed lack of confidence in the police, accusing the authorities of trying to cover up those who perpetrated this evil act, adding, “the police is trying to sweep the case under the carpet.”
Genesis of the killings
According to Samsudeen Azeez, a driver by profession, he has been living in his one- room apartment at No 25, Oloungbebe Street, Iyana Celestial, Ilupeju-Ilepa (Abule Oke), Ifo Local Government since 1995 but his intention to take another room on January 1 was aborted. On that fateful day, suspected land speculators turned his house into a war zone. They unleashed terror and gruesomely murdered the carpenter, Omoola , whom he contracted the job for, along with his colleagues Kazeem Omotoso who was wounded but escaped and Joseph Ogbonna who was wounded and taken away by the land speculators and has not been seen till date.
Narrating his ordeal, Azeez in tears, said: “I am a driver and have been living in a one -room with my family since 1995, and on January 1 , this year I wanted to cover another room with iron roofing sheets . As the work started some of the land speculators (Omo onile) came in batches on their okada and demanded ratification fee over the land while I pleaded with them that I would attend to them later. However, the boys who had already been under the influence of alcohol and drugs and over 30 in number, instead of listening to me ,they descended on the workers and beat the hell out of them, while Omotoso escaped , Ogbonna was wounded, Omoola was not lucky as he was beaten mercilessly.”
The land speculators, however, returned to Azeez’s residence. This time, they were fully armed , Azeez narrated further:“On the 4th of January the land speculators resurfaced and hell was let loose, They came with a Jeep, about 20 okada motorcycles with over 40 of them. They kidnapped three of the workers. Omotoso, Omoola and Ogbonna. Later I heard that the three were dragged along the road to their leader, the Baale of Abule Oke, Chief Adebayo Adekunle where they were tortured, which eventually led to the death of Omoola while Ogbonna was seriously wounded and had not been seen till today. I am hiding in the bush now because the Baale and his boys are after my life.”
Torture chamber
Omotoso who has gone into hiding told The Nation that his life is not safe from the suspected assailants who have vowed to kill him. He said that he cannot easily forget how he escaped from being killed. According to him, “the land speculators kidnapped the three of us and after severe beatings, they took us to the palace of Baale Abule -Oke where we were chained. We were treated like common criminals; they used all kinds of weapons to beat us. It was painful, horrible and dehumanising. I was in agony for hours.They beat Omoola to the extent that he could not walk again. In the process of beating him, they hit him in the eye and blood gushed out. Omoola later became blind. When they found that we had no strength again, the Baale said they should quickly take us to Sango Police Station so that we would not die in his domain. They then quickly rushed us in his Jeep and drove us to Sango Police Station but the policeman we met refused to let us in and said one of us was dying. We were already naked as they had removed our clothes. The police officer bluntly refused to detain us and scolded our captors and asked why they should put law into their hands. We cried that we were dying. Ogbonna was already bleeding while Omoola could not walk again. On our way back to the palace, Omoola could not breathe or talk again until he slumped and gave up the ghost in the Jeep .When I saw this I jumped down from the vehicle and ran away without clothes on, for they had seized everything and they believed we would not have the effrontery to run away naked. I left Ogbonna with them because he was already weak and bleeding. When I escaped, I was still naked .When I saw a commercial Kombi bus I begged the conductor to give me a ride but he thought I was a mad man since I was naked. He did not allow me to enter his vehicle but gave me N100 instead.”
He continued: “It is painful we don’t know the whereabouts of Ogbonna. Later, I learnt that the suspected land speculators were after my life because I could give evidence against them,” Omotoso removed his clothes to show the bruises he received from his attackers.
Omoola’s corpse unsafe in mortuary
Saheed Abesin, who is the older brother to the late Omoola, said the suspected assailants had been making frantic efforts to remove his brother’s corpse from Ifo General Hospital mortuary. He said that “we were told that some unknown people have been coming to the mortuary trying to claim the corpse. The late Omoola still has an aged father while his wife and children are at home waiting for what the court would say. He was the head of the family and their bread winner. His corpse should not be released without autopsy and should be handed over to the family but not just anybody.” He accused a commissioner in the police force of trying to tamper with the course of justice.
How Vigilantes were killed
However, Omotoso revealed that in the dead of the night, the alleged assailants took the corpse of Omoola, whom they had allegedly killed and wanted to dump it in the house where he was working when they were accosted by one of the vigilante members , the late Adegbite. He challenged them and asked to see what they were conveying in the car they were driving. The suspects pleaded with him and even cajoled him to cooperate with them but he refused. This led to arguments, which awoke a police officer who lives within the vicinity. The officer came out to inquire from them what was happening. Again, they made effort to woo him to their side. He also refused and the case was eventually reported at the Ifo Police Station.
According to Azeez, the owner of the house which the late Omoola was roofing, “When we were informed that the land speculators were coming to attack us in the night we ran into the bush to hide. Around 2 am, about 30 land speculators came to my house with Omoola’s corpse, intending to dump it or to bury it in the uncompleted building, but unfortunately for them, they were sighted by the two vigilante men who quickly alerted me. It was because they saw them trying to dump Omoola’s corpse in my house that they later tricked them and killed them too. Now. I cannot sleep in Abule Oke again, I am in hiding because I am not safe. They may want to kill me too.”
According to one of the wives of the slain vigilante, Mrs Bose Adegbite, on January 8, at 12 :30 am, a distress call was sent to her husband by some unknown people, informing him on phone that some armed robbers were at the Iyana Ilogbo Junction, and that he should come to their rescue. Adegbite who was employed by the community to be safeguarding their transformers, woke up, told his wife and children that he was going to arrest the robbers. He called his partner Alapomu and they went to the junction to see things for themselves.
Investigation revealed that when the assailants saw both men they pretended to be armed robbers and then rained bullets on them. However, unknown to them two other security guards saw them, killing the two vigilantes. One of the security guards, who saw them killing the vigilantes was shot in the leg. On the second day, the community were alerted by the security men that two of the vigilantes had been killed and the police later came to take the corpses away.
“We now live in fear, for we know the suspected assassins are the land speculators who have godfathers and have money to spend anywhere. When it comes to land speculators they have the money to spend and they have been killing and getting away with what they do,” said the man who begged for anonymity for fear of being killed.
When The Nation got to one of the family members of the vigilante killed, Mrs. Awawu Alapomu, she described the incident as a shock. “We were already sleeping on the January 6 when my husband’s phone rang and he told me that he was being called to come and rescue the villagers from armed robbers that had come to terrorise them. I bade him goodbye not knowing that was the last time I would see him. Around 7am in the morning they came to tell us that he had been killed along with his partner. I was shocked to my bone marrow. I was later told that they had taken the corpse to the Ifo General Hospital. I was not allowed to see the corpse but I was told by my children how the body was riddled with bullets.”
She continued, “I have six children for him, the eldest is 20years and the youngest is a three year old girl. Who will help me to take care of the children?, she lamented.
Mrs .Bose Adegbite, wife of the second vigilante also confirmed that her husband was called on phone by his partner, Alapomu, to join him to go and fight the robbers. She lamented that her husband was a victim of a set up. “It was after his death that we heard a lot of things.” She believed that her husband was killed by the speculators because they thought he was going to expose their nefarious activities.
She added: “I relied on my husband who used to support me financially but now everything is gone! I sell pap and I make about N700 once in a while daily when the market is good. Now how will I take care of these six children? This is wicked.”
Alhaji Muraino Ayinde who was an uncle to the deceased said, “I am an old man, I remember that I was on my way to the toilet on that fateful day when Adegbite informed me that he had a distress call that he should come and rescue the community from armed robbers, it was later we started hearing strange stories.”
Sodiq Adegbite, son of the late Adegbite, described the death of his father as strange and gruesome. He said, “When I saw the mutilated body of my father I could not believe that human beings could be that wicked. They shot him in the heart, back, chest and buttocks. There were several holes in his body showing traces of knives used in stabbing him. Now we are left fatherless.”
Chief John Gbadegesin, who is the vice chairman of Abule Oke Central Community Development Association, described the killing of the security guards as shocking. He said “the victims were recruited four years ago to be safe guarding the electric cables and our transformers in this area. They had been performing very well and were hardworking, but see how they dealt cruelly with them. The families demanded for their corpses and said they wanted to quickly bury them for they were Muslims and we organised and paid for the expenses of the burial .They had been buried in their respective houses.”
Also, Olu Ogundele, an ex officio said the manner and way the victims were killed was too gruesome. “We all saw their bodies , they really destroyed them to the extent that only God can judge. But we pray to the Federal Government to wade into the matter. This is too much,.” he said.
A stained stool?
The village head (Baale), Chief Adekunle Adefemi, who was accused of supporting the land speculators, denied any complicity in what happened. He said his community is peaceful. “I am still surprised that these people accused us of many things that never happened. It was the former President Olusegun Obasanjo who assisted us by giving us the land the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) once acquired. He released the acquired land to the community and said we should use the proceeds for our development.”
He continued: “ Where Azeez built his house falls into the acquisition land in our area and I was told that the land agents who are in charge asked him to come and see our agents to discuss about the ratification fee before he continued the roofing of his house, but instead of obeying them, his boys seized our representative’s okada. I learnt that the boy then went to call his colleagues and they fought. Azeez too is a land agent and does his business in Ilepa, but the Ilepa land had fallen into our own area released by the LUTH. We have documents like Certificate of Occupancy, Memorandum of Understanding(MOU), Survey and Agreement between Abule and LUTH they gave us on the acquisition. We went to our lawyer who gave us instruction to post awareness notice to the people and for them to come and pay certain amount for the ratification into WEMA Bank.”
The village head who confirmed that he was arrested in connection with the case, said, “Around 10:15 pm on January 4, some police officers came from Ifo Police Station to arrest me, saying that I knew about the death of a worker at the site. I spent six days in the police cell at Ifo where they tortured me and again was detained for three weeks at Eleweran Police Station, Abeokuta.”
On the late Omoola who is still in the mortuary, the Baale said, “he could not have been a carpenter. If he was then the Carpenters’ Society would have come to me to officially inform me as the head of the community. Those they claimed are missing are seen walking along the streets, it’s all tissues of lies. Azeez who started the crisis and wanted to roof his house was even begging me at Eleweran Police Headquarter, Abeokuta, saying he was, being misled and was begging for forgiveness.”
On the death of the vigilantes, the village head denied ever having hand in it , he said, “I had been in the cell since and I have just come out. I am not after anybody’s life. These men (vigilantes) were working for us without being paid, they were our own people, in fact, I am one of the chief mourners.”
Narrating his experience in the hands of the police, the Baale said, “I was detained for six days at Ifo where they hanged me on the ceiling. They beat the hell out of me for doing nothing. I have not seen where a traditional ruler is being treated like that. I was stripped naked. In fact, you need to see my body, it is full of wounds.”
On the death of Omoola, the traditional ruler said, “it, the corpse, was found in the house of Azeez. I don’t kill. On Wednesday, the Azeez’s group and the community called me for a settlement and for a peace meeting, saying they wanted to beg me, but I have contacted my lawyer who said investigation is on at the police station and I should not go. They cannot rubbish and lie against me in the public and now beg me in a corner. We shall meet in the law court.”
The question about who killed Omoola is still a puzzle, while Azeez claimed the land speculators brought the corpse from the police station to his house, the traditional ruler said the body was found in Azeez’s house.
The community has appealed to the Inspector General of Police to wade into the matter and investigate thoroughly since both parties are accusing each other of being responsible for the murder of the three men. When contacted, the Investigation Police Officer in charge of the case confirmed the story, adding that investigation was still in progress.
