Posted by By Juliana Francis on
The police in Lagos have arrested a man in connection with the murder of two men who were killed with machete in their homes.
The police in Lagos have arrested a man in connection with the murder of two men who were killed with machete in their homes.
But Morufu Oyedele, who is being quizzed by the police, has denied knowing anything about the death of Mutari Harudu and Lawal Mohammed.
On July 3, Oyedele was on a commercial motorbike, when some men packing out refuse from a gutter mistakenly poured on him some of the filth. He was said to have ordered the bike riders to stop and had engaged the workers in hot exchange of words.
Oyedele, a butcher, was said to have left in a huff and came back with other butchers. And before one could say Jack Robinson the group had gone for one another's throat.
The fight was, however, said to have been resolved peacefully by the traditional ruler of Iba town on the outskirts of Lagos where the incident took place. The settlement apparently didn't go down well with some of the butchers, for they were said to have stormed the home of the workers at night and butchered two of them to death. The third worker, however, was said to have escaped death by the whiskers. The escaped worker had a machete cut on his hand but with his life intact, he had rushed to the police. He was the person that alerted the police and fingered one of the killers.
Knowing the planned killing of the workers had been botched and sensing it was only a matter of time before police came looking for them, the suspect, Kazeem, identified as a member of Oodua People's Congress,(OPC) was said to have bolted.
Detectives are however working on the premises that Oyedele, the key person that led to the conflict between the workers and the butchers may lead police to the hide out of Kazeem. They also believed that Oyedele knew more than he was letting out.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Oyedele said: "How can I kill someone just because he poured refuse on me? I don't know anything about these killings. I am an Alfa! Even this Kazeem, I am surprised that he went there. He and I had never been close."
It is also being speculated that Kazeem might have had some sort of fracas before with the workers and only seized the problem of Oyedele and the workers to exact a revenge. Sources said the workers are well known in the area for clearing gutters.
According to Oyedele he was rushing to see his sick sister-in-law when the workers poured the filth from the gutter on him. He said the workers were six in number. When he and the commercial bike rider complained, one of the workers had allegedly tried to hit the bike rider with a shovel.
He said: "I took it from him. One of them used another shovel on my face. I am a meat seller. The bike rider ran to call other meat sellers. He told them the workers were beating me. They rushed down to assist me. They beat two of the workers. They later dragged six of them to our shop including the men who gave them the job for the day."
Other workers in the area were said to have alerted their leader, who came to make sure his men were released. The matter was later taken to the traditional ruler who declared that the wounded workers must be treated and paid for the day's job. Oyedele said that it was either they treat the men and pay for their day's job or be arrested by police, who the kabiyesi had already called.
Oyedele said he and the other suspects agreed to meet the condition. "We were asked to come back on Friday. I promised to bring the N24,000 which is the total of everything. I promised to get the money ready by Tuesday. I started borrowing. By Sunday, I already had N18,000. I was surprised that two of the men had been killed."
Oyedele said he was shocked to hear that some butchers ganged up and went to the residence of the workers to kill them. He also denied knowing about the planned attack on the men.
Daily Sun learnt that detectives are making frantic efforts to arrest Kazeem.