Wife of 36-year-old Lekan Omoekun, who was gruesomely murdered on March 27, by some suspected cultists at the Bariga area of Lagos State, Mrs Aina Omoekun, has demanded for justice over the death of her husband and begged the police to help her bring the killers to book.
The victim, who was a cobbler, was killed when he went to withdrew money at point of sales agent’s shop at Idi Aba area of the community, but was accosted by the assailants. Our correspondent learnt that the assailants trailed him to the area and demanded a share of the money he went to collect from the POS agent. The distraught widow, who spoke with our correspondent on what transpired between her husband and his killers, said the suspected cultists flagged his bike down and demanded that he give them out of the money he went to collect from the POS agent, but he refused.
“I was told my husband then told the cultists that he doesn’t have enough money with him, that the only money with him was what he wanted to give to me to prepare his meal to break his fast, but the cultists insisted on collecting part of the money, that was when argument ensued between them and my husband.” She added: “I was at home preparing to go out to get something in a nearby shop when I received a phone call from my younger brother asking where I was, he told me to rush down to Idi Aba that some people have attacked my husband.
“When I got to the scene, my husband had already been hacked down by the cultists and his body was seriously mutilated. When I inquired from people around the area I was told everything that happened, they told me that my husband was trying to retrieve his seized bike from the cultists when argument ensued between them. “I was also told that my husband was begging them that part of the money with him that he wanted to use it for shoe material that he wanted to use for his customers. I was told he later gave them N20,000, just to allow him to go home to give his wife money.
Before he realised what was happening the cultists brought out their axe and hacked my husband in broad daylight, with deep cuts all over his body and his head.” She added that the cultists also cut her husband’s hands. The cultists that attacked her husband, she was told always assemble at Sun Gas and Canal area of Idi Aba and she does not want her husband to die in vain.
An easy going person
Speaking about her husband, Mrs Omoekun said: “My husband was an easy going person that was what made me to accept his offer to marry him when he proposed to me. My husband was not a cultist as being speculated by some people, he was a hard working person. I can vouch for him; my husband never belonged to any confraternity in the community.
“Those who are cultists in the community are always afraid of going to other areas, but my husband and I walk freely without any harassment. Lekan doesn’t deserve such death. He was a well-known young man in Bariga and its environs as a gentleman. “On the fateful day of the incident, before he went out to withdraw the money, he was a bit reluctant to go out, but because we didn’t have food at home, he decided to go collect the money so as to get something to eat when we want to break our fast. This is not the first time my husband has gone to that area to collect money from the woman who operate POS in the area. Those cultists were not is friends and he was not their friend either, but he use to give them money whenever he passes through the area and they will hail him.
“If you ask people in the community about my husband, they will tell you who he was, I don’t know why it was my husband that they killed. Unfortunately, after killing him they took away his bike, money and wrist watch that is worth N70,000. They just killed him because of money? I have accepted my fate, but those who killed him in such a horrible way, such will befall them and their entire family members, because what they did to me and my daughter is a long term mourning and sorrow.” It was also learnt that the incident which happened around 3pm on Monday, March 27, threw the whole community into apprehension as residents scampered for safety, while the cultists were said to have killed two other persons in the community, a day before Lekan was killed. Meanwhile, the remains of the deceased were later taken to Ibadan where he was buried on March 29. The deceased father was said to have fainted when he saw the corpse of his son.
Reactions
A resident who didn’t want his name in print said in the last one week several promising young men have been killed in Somolu and Bariga area as a result of supremacy battle among cultists. He said on this issue of Lekan, his death was too heavy to bear for someone like him, because the deceased was a hard working person. “I have not seen him walking with those bad boys in the community, how he became their target that’s what is surprising to me. I always see him with his wife, initially, I thought they were twins? The Lagos State Police Command should focus more on the two communities on the issue of cultists.
“The cultists have now become a threat to everyone in Bariga and Somolu, we as elders don’t have much to say to them, because they will never listen to us, because some politicians are sponsoring them and even when they are arrested it is the same politicians who will also bail them out. We want peace in our area. “Whenever the cultists start their operation, we won’t be able to sleep with our eyes closed. Young promising boys who are supposed to be beneficial to their parents are being killed on daily basis in Lagos. As for me, I have relocated my children to my home town so as not to influence them into their group.”
Another resident who simply gave his name as Adebisi, said on the fateful day when Lekan was going to the POS agent shop, they exchanged pleasantries, but was surprised when the news got to him. “It was an unfortunate incident, the deceased was an easy going person, he had even built shoes for me before, how can you kill your fellow human being because of money and material things. “I just want to urge police to round the cultists up at their hangout where they hide to perpetrate terror against residents in the community. The unfortunate aspect of the incident is that the victim was killed in broad daylight without minding the consequences. “The cult guys have gone into hiding before now, why they are out again is what most of us don’t understand, because they are threat to everyone in the community and the state at large.”
However, when contacted for comment on the killing of Mr Omoekun at Bariga area of the state, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin said many people have been calling him to inquire about the killing in the area. He said: “I have called the Divisional Police Officer of the area to inquire from him if truly such incident occurred and he told me he was not aware of any cult related killing in the community.”
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