Man Shot to Death as Killer-Squads Seize Lagos Community by the Throat

Matilda Omonaiye/

 

A man has been shot to death in a Lagos community where residents say life has become very cheap, as cult boys now kill at will.

According to eyewitnesses account, the slain Abraham Umaru, 28, was visiting his girlfriend when a gang of about nine suspected cult boys accosted him and shot him in the head on Tuesday night at Cele Bus Stop area of Ijanikin.

Residents say such killings have become a recurring decimal in the area.

One of them who described Ijanikin as a notorious area filled with cult boys who carry out their activities at will, told NewsmakersNG: “They go into houses, kill and butcher people. As I am talking to you a whole family is still in the hospital. They were attacked and butchered by these boys. Just two weeks ago two boys were shot and killed at the next bus stop because they refused to release their phone.

“The Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education is not left out. It is filled with notorious boys who steal and attack people even inside the school premises. We are not safe here at all.”

The story of the latest victim has a love twist to it.

Abraham, fondly called Abi, was a commercial bus driver who was allegedly in love with a girl that some cult boys had warned him to leave for them.

After the day’s business last Tuesday night, he decided to eat at the shop of his girlfriend’s mother, when a gang of about nine boys allegedly surrounded him and shot him in the head, killing him instantly.

At the victim’s house this morning, his mother was still in shock.

The sister, Aminat Umar, however, told NewsmakersNG about Abraham’s last moments.

She said, “Abi called me at 9:21 pm asking if I was back from work that he was on his way home. Ten minutes later Peter and Naomi rushed to the house shouting and banging on the gate that we should come out that 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 were told that nobody was brought there so they had to check at Ademola hospital and were told that the body was not brought to the hospital but taken to the station, so she went back to the police station. They later admitted that he was there. They locked the body in the cell claiming the boy was a cultist.”

The victim’s father, Mr Muhammed Umaru, said that his son had been receiving threatening messages from some boys.

He said, “They were telling him to leave his girlfriend, Elo, 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 wears dreadlocks and he is dark in complexion.

“I told his auntie and uncle who warned the girl to stay away from him and also warned him to leave the girl alone but he didn’t listen.”

When arrested today, the 17-year-old girlfriend who appeared carefree gave her name as Arigi Precious Elo. She admitted that Abi was her boyfriend and “the only one”.

“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 would not be coming back as we were planning my brother’s wedding. On Wednesday, people started calling me saying Abi has been killed. I didn’t know about any threat because Abi did not tell me anything,” she said.

A source, however, insisted that Elo was hand-in-glove with the cult group.

The source also spoke about how Elo has been living wild and free and was planning to leave the country in two weeks’ time.

An eyewitness said that the assailants arrived after Abraham packed his vehicle and went to the restaurant to eat.

The eyewitness said, “He was with his conductor and the owner of the commercial bus when one of the boys tapped him on the back, another pushed and slammed his head on the wall, and then one of them put the gun to his head and shot him.

“I was surprised because his girlfriend Elo was with them at the scene of the shooting. Everybody ran away leaving his body at the scene while she left with the killers. Elo lives with her mother who owns the shop where Abi was killed.”

The Divisional Police Officer at Ijanikin Police Station said that he received the report that a boy was shot and also a message from someone that the boy had been receiving threatening messages from the killers.

He added that the girlfriend and her mother knew about the messages.

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