OP MESA soldier goes berserk, shoots colleague, father of four to death over N500

Mother of the deceased
*Widow: I lost two children, husband in a row!
*Family demands justice
BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

On the first Monday of February 2014 when many
looked forward to the new month with aspirations,
tragedy struck at Ayinla Junction in Agbado area of
Ijaiye Ojokoro Local Government Area of Lagos: the
life of a 36-year-old tricyclist, Richard Samuel,
was allegedly terminated by a trigger-intoxicated
OP MESA official, simply identified as Mohammed,
over the tricyclist’s failure to pay an illegal daily
levy of N500.
Events surrounding murder
According to Adegoke Samson, Chairman of the
Agbado/Dalemo unit of the Tricycle Owners
Association of Nigeria, TORA, who narrated the
event to Sunday Vanguard, when two OP-MESA
officials approached him around 10.am with
vehicle number plate KJA 971 AR and inscription
‘OP MESA 039’ for the usual N500, he summoned
Samuel, popularly known as Small Sunday, being
their Financial Secretary, to hand them the sum.
But there were only N1,000 notes with Samuel and
he asked to be excused to go and get smaller
denomination of the notes.
As reported by Adegoke, while Samuel was away
to get the smaller naira notes, another tricyclist in
same association came by and acerbically queried
why they should attend to the officers who had
already collected same amount of money from a
neighbouring tricycle unit. Meantime, one of the
officers, Mohammed, had become angry and
probably suspicious of Samuel’s intention.
“He left and returned later in rage, grabbing
Samuel by his trousers and ordering him to enter
into their vehicle. He queried him saying: ‘So you
don’t want to give me the money? Do you think I
am a police officer? I will kill you now!’. Samuel
was stunned at his outrage and refused to enter
their vehicle. At this time, he had the N500 note
and was pleading with the man to collect it.
Instead of yielding, the officer suddenly pointed his
gun at Samuel at close range and shot him dead
on the spot.
When his colleague, a fellow officer, queried his
superfluous action, he immediately shot him dead
as well, ordering a private vehicle owner driving
past to stop, at gun point, and dragging the corpse
of his colleague into the vehicle whose driver he
immediately ordered to drive off. He could not use
their vehicle because he had punctured one of its
tyres in the course of his shooting-spree. That was
how he escaped and left their driver who was later
apprehended by officers of Ebenezer Police Station
by Block Bus Stop in Jankara”, Adegoke told
Sunday Vanguard.
Visit to deceased’s home
When Sunday Vanguard visited the late Samuels’s
home, joy seemed to have vanished into thin air
for the entire family. From the face of his surviving
wife to his four children who repeatedly enquired
about the whereabouts of their father and surviving
58-year-old mother who cried incessantly for
justice, hope appeared a dream of the night.
Samuel’s widow, Mrs.Rukayat Samuel, a 30-year-
old housewife who trained as a chemist and
auxiliary nurse but was advised by her husband to
stay at home to care for their children, couldn’t
fight back tears as she spoke.
“When a friend called to inform me that Monday
morning, I shouted and fainted. I demanded to
know my husband’s killer and was taken to
Ebenezer Police Station where the Divisional Police
Officer, DPO, informed me that the matter had been
immediately transferred to the Criminal
Investigation Department, Panti that Tuesday
morning since it was a murder case.
The police at the Ebenezer station tried very well
for me. They offered to take me and my
accompanying family members to Panti, which
they did the following day. There, I saw the OP
MESA vehicle used by my husband’s killer.
OP MESA justifies killing
“We were shocked to find out that that same
Wednesday morning, OP MESA officials were at
Panti to demand the release of the driver of the
vehicle. The police, however, insisted Mohammed
must be fished out first. We were told the OP
MESA officials claimed my husband was shot
because he was caught smoking marijuana in a
marijuana joint.
That is blatant lie because a crowd of people at
Ayinla junction witnessed how he shot my
husband and then shot his colleague who reacted.
Now they want to play trick and cover up the crime
to prevent justice. The policemen at Panti later
informed us that Mohammed had been detained in
their office at PWD, near Oshodi.
”The truth is that my husband never even smoked
cigarette, not to talk of Marijuana. I had known him
for 17 years. He never smoked cigarette and he
never came home late at night. His job has been
riding the tricycle for some years now.”
Memories
Recollecting memories of her late husband,
Rukayat said: “The last moment I had with him
was on phone. He had called me that Monday
around 9.am to greet and know what I would like
him to buy for me when returning home. This is
so painful because before, now, I had lost two
children; one was a stillborn and the other, a
three-year-old child. My husband was a peace-
loving man and I’m sure he kept no extra-marital
affair because he usually called me to meet him at
a joint where he always treated me to soft drinks
and nice meals. That was how he always relaxed.
Breadwinner gone
“My husband was the sole breadwinner of our
home and also his immediate family, including his
mother. We all depended on him. He was the one
paying the school fees of his children and that of
his siblings. In fact, he gave a certain amount of
money to his mum every week. Our four children
are all in school. The first is 14-year-old and he is
in SS1 in a boarding school. The second is in
JSS3, the third is in Primary 5 and the fourth is in
kindergarten.
Missing valuables
“In fact, he had promised to buy a plot of land for
his mum by the middle of this month. He even told
me that Monday morning that he had part of the
money he wanted to use to buy the land in his
pocket because he had just collected it from the
contribution he was part of. We were to go make
part-payment that evening. His younger brother
who took his body to the mortuary with policemen
said that by the time they got to the mortuary and
the attendant there undressed him and cleaned him
up, there was no longer money in the pockets.
Even his cell phone and I.D card were missing.”
My last moments with son —Deceased’s mum
The mother of the deceased, Victoria Samuel,
fought back tears as she spoke, recollecting the
memories and her last moments with her first son.
Victoria said: “My last moment with him was the
day before his death. He was the one feeding me. I
never thought he would not live to bury me. I am
helpless and lonely now. I just want government to
have mercy on me.
Get justice for my son and help his family. In my
days as a younger person, soldiers lived in the
barracks; I wonder why soldiers, now in the name
of OP MESA, extort motorists at their parks and
even shoot those who do not oblige them on time!
Lagos State government and the police should
please fish out the killer-soldier, Mohammed.
Otherwise, he will go on killing others with
impunity. Now he has made my son’s children
fatherless and his wife, a widow; no one to take
care of us now.”