For years, an unidentified man had put up the appearance and visage of a mentally deranged person, as he wandered around the 7-UP Bus Stop area along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, creating the impression that he was a lunatic or a destitute.
But nemesis caught up with the ‘mad man’ on Wednesday afternoon, when he was allegedly caught engaged in a sound conversation with a young girl, betraying the image of the lunatic he had presented for years.
As the ‘mad man’ continued in his sound conversation and unaware that the game was up, some passersby, who had noticed the unusual happening, alerted others in the vicinity to the abnormality.
When we caught him, he wanted to run; so we started to beat him but he was not feeling any pain. We then asked him to remove his clothes to enable us to get a closer look at him. We found out that he was wearing nine different clothes underneath, which include clean ones
They all decided to watch the ‘mad man’ a bit from afar, and when they were convinced that he had for years only been pretending to be what he’s not, they moved against him.
And when they accosted and challenged him, he made to bolt, but he was stopped by the passersby.
When he was interrogated, he was said to have spoken in defence of himself, like any other normal human being.
When the load of rubbish he had been carrying about was searched, the passersby were shocked to find some unusual items, including used baby diapers, some local black soap, bottles of concoction and faeces.
An eyewitness, Muyiwa Adeleke, said that he had, for some time now, been noticing the antics of the supposed mad man around the area and so decided to find out if he was real or just pretending.
Adeleke said he, therefore, alerted other people within the vicinity, when he noticed that the ‘mad man’ was now acting like a normal person.
He said that the supposed mad man was interrogated by him and others before the police were invited to take him away.
“We have been noticing him for years now, as a mad man. Just recently, we noticed that he had been acting strangely but, today, he was caught talking to a lady normally and we decided to check,” Adeleke
said.
Another eye witness, Olufunke Majekodunmi, said that when some of the passers-by tried to give the ‘mad man’ some beating, they discovered, to their chagrin, that he was not even feeling any pain!
They then ordered him to pull his clothes. They were, however, shocked to find out that the ‘mad man’ was wearing nine other clean clothes underneath the dirty ones, which had been portraying him to the public as a lunatic.
“When we caught him, he wanted to run, so we started to beat him but he was not feeling any pain.
We then asked him to remove his clothes to enable us to get a closer look at him. We found out that he was wearing nine different clothes underneath, which included clean ones,” Mary said.
The eyewitness also said that while interrogating the ‘mad man,’ he argued with them and answered their questions like a normal person would do.
“See how a mad man was talking like a normal person. When we told him to drop his things for a search, he was even explaining himself. You would know he was not a mad man,” she said.
The eyewitness confirmed that among the items found in the ‘mad man’s’ sack, when he was searched, were used baby diapers, black soap, bottles of concoction
and faeces.
According to her, the police were immediately contacted for further investigation of the case.
