Cobbler robs, hacks trader to death

A 25-year-old man, Eje Ebi, has been hacked to death by a cobbler, Adesina Osinowo, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the victim was hacked with machete in the head and hand when the suspect wanted to dispossess him of some money he was taking to the market to buy clothes.

The incident happened at the Kokoro Abu Roundabout.

When our correspondent visited the scene of the incident on Wednesday, he met with his relatives and neighbours who live on Raji Owolegbon Street.

Our correspondent learnt from them that the deceased was formerly living in Jos with his wife and kid, but relocated to Lagos in May, 2014 due to the insurgency in the North.

His brother, Azubuike Ebi, said, “I brought him to stay with me in Ikorodu because of the killings in Jos.

“His wife and kid went to stay in our village in Afikpo North, Ebonyi State.

“He chose to sell fairly-used clothes at a motor park in Ikorodu and was making money.

“On Thursday, he woke up very early to buy goods that he would sell because he had run out of stock.

“That was when Osinowo, who had been monitoring his movement, attacked him on the road and used machete to cut him in the head and hand. He also abandoned his corpse at the roundabout.”

Our correspondent learnt that after the attack, a crowd of residents gathered around the corpse, trying to identify the victim.

The Secretary of Kokoro Abu Community Development Association, Mr. Saliu Odusanya, said he was among the crowd which thronged the scene, but could not identify the victim on time.

He said, “I was sitting here when I heard that somebody had been killed at the roundabout. I went there and saw a young man in a pool of blood without knowing it was him.

“Later, they told me it was him. I was surprised because here was a young and easygoing man who was only looking for his daily bread early in the morning. It is unfortunate.”

PUNCH Metro gathered that the suspect reported himself to security men, with blood stains all over his clothes.

Angry residents reportedly swooped on him and would have lynched him, but for the intervention of community elders who handed him over to the police.

While the deceased was taken to a mortuary in Ikorodu, the suspect was detained at the Igbogbo Police Station.

The Public Relations Officer of the Igbo Council of Chiefs, Ikorodu, Chief Ibe Onyike, said he suspected that Eje was killed for a ritual purpose.

Onyike said the Igbo community in Ikorodu wanted to start a riot on the day of the incident, but he called for calm.

He said, “This is not the first time they will kill people in that roundabout, especially strangers.

“Every morning, you wake up to see freshly slaughtered goats and fowls.

“That spot serves fetish purpose for the indigenes of this area.

“After Eje was slaughtered there, more than 400 people gathered and wanted to start a riot that could have consumed Ikorodu, but I told my people to exercise patience.

“If things don’t change for the better, we may not continue to sit down and look.”

He claimed that the deceased’s phones and money were no longer on him by the time the family recovered the corpse.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu, when contacted, said he would get back to our correspondent.

But he had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.