An unidentified man has been killed with a butcher’s knife in Lagos, while the suspected assailant is said to be on the run.
The incident was said to have occurred on January 1, at the Ijaiye–Ojokoro area of the state.
A police source at the Ijaiye Police Station, where the incident was later reported, told The Point that two suspects were already in custody in connection with the killing.
The source added that three men, who were suspected to have been drunk, had taken a ride from the nearby park and the agreed fare was N100 each. But on getting to their destination, two of the passengers were said to have each paid the agreed fee to the riders.
The third person, who later turned the victim, rather than paying the same fare as his friends, reportedly engaged the Okadaman in an argument over the agreed fare.
An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The deceased person told the okada man that he would not pay more than N70.
This angered the okada man, having realised that his coriders paid N100 each. He was pacified by some passersby, who begged him before he settled for the N70.
As the okadaman was about leaving the venue, the passenger, later identified as Akin, held back his motorcycle, saying that it was an affront for the okada rider to challenge him.
“There was an altercation between the two of them. The matter degenerated to fisticuffs and the okada rider pulled out a butcher’s knife with which he ripped out the intestines of the deceased person, whose identity was not immediately known.”
One of the other two persons, who made an attempt to prevent the okadaman from leaving the scene, was also given a cut on his hand before the suspect sped off
He said one of the other two perssengers, who made an attempt to prevent the okadaman from leaving the scene, was also given a cut on his hand before the suspect sped off. Police officers from the nearby Ijaye Police station were invited by some sympathisers. The police promptly arrested the two persons found at the scene.
The police, who clamped the two men into the cell, said unless the fleeing suspect was apprehended, the duo would be charged to court. The Point was told by a senior Police officer during a visit on Wednesday that none of the two men in their custody would be released, unless they produced the man who committed the crime.
“We are investigating a case bearing on homicide. We shall charge them to court at the end of investigation. Let the court free them. We were not there when the incident took place. Let the suspects tell the court what happened.
We do not have the powers to free them,” a police source said. Lagos State Police spokesperson, Superintendent Dolapo Badmos, who confirmed the incident, said that the matter would be charged to court at the appropriate time.
