Some hoodlums on Wednesday engaged in a supremacy battle on
Sadiku Road, Ilasamaja, Lagos State, leaving a 29-year-old electrical engineer,
Biodun Fadipe, who was eating lunch, dead.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the hoodlums unleashed terror on one
another from about 4pm and held residents and visitors to the area hostage for
two hours.
They were said to have been armed with guns, cutlasses and
other weapons. It was also gathered that shop owners and other traders on the
street abandoned their wares while the mayhem lasted.
Our correspondent gathered that the deceased, who was a
father of three children, was attacked by the hoodlums in front of his workshop
on Tanimowo Street, off Sadiku, where they hacked him to death.
During a visit to the area on Thursday morning, one of
Fadipe’s elder brothers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the hoodlums
killed his brother while he was taking his lunch.
He said, “Biodun was murdered in front of our father’s
house. He worked as an electrical engineer there. He used to repair big-size
generators. Yesterday (Wednesday) during the clash, the hoodlums took over the
whole of Sadiku Road, from where they came into Tanimowo Street.
“They saw him while he was taking his lunch. They attacked
him and as he made to escape into our father’s house, they followed him and
hacked him till he died. There was no one around to challenge them as most
people had fled to take cover in neighbouring areas. All of us came back to
meet him in a pool of blood. He was a casualty of a supremacy war between two
gangs of hoodlums.”
It was gathered that policemen from the Ilasamaja Police
Division came on Thursday morning to take the corpse away from the scene of the
attack.
Also, our correspondent observed a large crowd of residents
discussing the incident. It was gathered from them that some of the hoodlums
wore masks.
When our correspondent got to Fadipe’s rented apartment on
Oremeji Street, the deceased’s wife and three children were said to have been
taken to a safer area. However, a tenant who declined to give her name, said
she received the news of Fadipe’s death with shock.
She said, “He and his wife were a loving family. The wife is
still nursing his third child who is just six months old. As much as I know, he
did not belong to any gang or cult. He was just a victim of circumstances.
“Yesterday when the clash started, I was around the area too
because I sell drugs in a shop on Tanimowo Street. Everyone fled when the
hoodlums started breaking bottles and stabbing one another. I think it might
have been while he was escaping that they saw and attacked him. It is really
sad.”
The Lagos State Deputy Police Public Relations Officer,
Lelma Kolle, while confirming the murder, said two hoodlums who carried out the
act had been arrested and detained by the Ilasamaja Police Division. He added
that normalcy had been restored in the area.
“There was a clash between two groups of hoodlums in the
area. When the fighting started, the victim was pursued by three of the
hoodlums. And while escaping to the other side of the road, they used matchets
on his head. The suspects are now at the Ilasamaja Division and peace has been
restored in the area
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