Posted by Olalekan Adetayo on
The Catholic community in Lagos was on Wednesday struck again with tragedy as armed robbers attacked one of its sisters' convents, killing a guard on duty.
The Catholic community in Lagos was on Wednesday struck again with tragedy as armed robbers attacked one of its sisters' convents, killing a guard on duty.
The guard, Jonathan Owolabi, was killed for allegedly failing to cooperate when the robbers gained entrance into the convent of St. Leo's Catholic Church, Ikeja.
The robbers had tied other guards in the convent to a stake but they resented Owolabi's alleged uncooperative attitude.
The attack which was confirmed by the Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, a deputy superintendent of police, occurred barely a week after bandits killed a clergyman, Rev. Godwin Okwesili, at Saint Dominic's Catholic Church, Yaba.
Our correspondent gathered that the robbers, who arrived at the convent situated at 7, Amore Street, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, around 2.30 am, dispossessed the nuns (sisters) of their valuables.
A source said that some residents of the area who sensed that the convent was under siege sent distress calls to Area ‘F' Command, Ikeja.
It was learnt that on sighting a team of anti-robbery policemen, the hoodlums took to their heels.
While escaping, they engaged the policemen in a gun battle.
One of the robbers, Kelechi Uzounwu, who claimed to be a resident of the Ikeja Military Cantonment, was arrested by the policemen with bullet wounds.
Two wristwatches earlier snatched at gunpoint from the Catholic nuns were recovered from the scene of the incident.
Other recovered items were two cutlasses, two iron rods and other housebreaking implements.
Ojajuni told our correspondent that Uzounwu had made useful statements that were helping the police to track down other members of the gang.
He said the corpse of the deceased security man had been deposited at the morgue of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, for autopsy.
Meanwhile, Catholic faithfuls and relations of the late Okwesili gathered at the St. Dominic Catholic Church on Wednesday as the funeral rites of the cleric began.
The rites, which started with a wake and memorial mass, will end on Friday with the interment of his remains.
The PUNCH, Thursday, August 11, 2005