The house, situated on No 3,
Alhaji Jamiu Sulaimon Street was in ruins. The two buildings in the compound
were torched, asbestos roofing sheets vandalized with household utensils,
including fans, cooking pots, clothes and others littering all the available
space. The high wall fence was also not spared, as two big holes were dug in it
and the main gate pulled down.
A splatter of
blood on the walls of the particular toilet where the victim was tortured
before being rescued was still visible. A further attempt to close the door
from behind reveals more heavy smears of blood on the wall tiles, which also
dotted the door.
The street, which has won
itself the sobriquet of Soka Street by residents was deserted, the few
people sighted, upon seeing The Guardian reporter coming out of the building,
increased their pace. Those caught up with, refused to talk on the issue.
A landlord on the street,
Arufulai Ayinde (a.k.a Kannakanna), who said that the detection of the
place and rescue of Paulinus Nweke, an 18-year old
belt hawker, who was abducted for ritual purpose, was made possible by the
cooperation of the residents, accused the police of keeping them in the dark on
the condition of the rescued boy and investigations made so far to apprehend
those behind the dastardly act.
Unlike reports in national
dailies that the incident occurred on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, it was learnt from Ayinde that the
unpleasant incident happened on Monday, June 9, 2014 around 3:30pm, when two
brothers were hawking on the street. The victim, who was hawking belts was
called inside the house with the pretence of buying belt from him, but after 30
minutes, the brother, who was hawking underwears,
told some passers-by that he heard his brother calling for help from the house.
The alarm
raised by the passers-by attracted other residents of the sleepy community, who
converged at the entrance of the locked gate, while some reported the incident
at Itele Police Division. The Police search team later came and gained access
to the house, where they met a man who took the police round the whole house
without seeing the boy as reported.
After the
police left the scene, street urchins, popularly called Area Boys, laid
siege on the area till dawn, insisting the boy was still in the house. Later on
Tuesday, after pupils of the two private primary schools situated opposite and
beside the house had closed for the day, the area boys called on the
police again for another search and the boy, soaked in the pool of his own
blood after
being matcheted several times and locked up in the toilet, was detected.
It was
revealed that the suspected ritualists, sensing the danger ahead, inflicted
machete wounds on the boy and ran away.
A woman, who
operates a school close to the house, also corroborated Ayinde’s claim. She
noted that it was the insistence of the youths and street urchins that made it
possible to get the boy out of the house, adding that though she couldn’t enter
the building like others due to fear, but that the report of the discovery of
objects recovered from the house was shocking.
It was learnt
that it was after the rescue and arrest of the suspected culprits that angry
youths set the building ablaze.
Though the
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi earlier disclosed
that the suspects had been transferred to the Department of Criminal
Investigation, Eleweran, Abeokuta, and the victim receiving treatment in a
hospital, residents of the community are kicking that the police have kept them
in the dark.
They noted
that the loud silence of the Police on the issue might be a sort of cover-up on
the case. They appealed that the Police should come out and brief them on the
efforts made so far on the apprehension of other accomplices who fled the scene
of the crime.
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