A 19-year-old boy, identified simply as Emmanuel, who was the only son of a widow was on Monday, December 22, 2014 at about 9am murdered in cold blood by some hoodlums on Moshalashi Street in the Iwaya area of Lagos State.
The deceased was allegedly supposed to be graduating on Saturday, December 27, 2014 before he was gruesomely murdered.
It was also gathered that about 50 vehicles parked on the roadside were destroyed by the assailants who numbered about 100 during a raid in about six streets in the area.
Some of the eye witnesses in the area disclosed that several persons sustained varying degrees of injuries while the hoodlums carted away with the belongings of a host of other residents during the attack.
Sources say the violence lasted for about three hours, without any challenge from security operatives, who began patrolling the troubled spots around 2am.
What led to the fracas could not be ascertained although the gang reportedly came from the Owode/Oju Ina part of the area and allegedly involved in a supremacy clash with the boys at the Iwaya area.
Narrating the unfortunate incident, an anonymous resident said, “Around 9.30 PM, we were all seated outside and we saw a crowd of boys entering into the street.
“They were wielding cutlasses, guns, bottles and irons. People started running helter-skelter. They attacked many people with cutlasses and used the opportunity to rob some ladies who were passing by. They were moving from street to street.”
Also speaking was another unidentified resident who disclosed that the victim who was an apprentice in a vulcaniser’s workshop, came out with a trolley loaded with bottles.
The source further revealed that some boys hauled the bottles in the trolley at the gang in a bid to repress the aggression.
He said, “They shot Imole (Emmanuel) in the leg and he could no longer run. That was when some of the gang members swooped on him and started hitting him with iron and cutting him with cutlasses. They left him for dead.”
Narrating the ordeal, one of the residents whose Toyota Camry was vandalised, Ayoola Efunkoya, said, “I learnt they were all teenagers. They broke the two windscreens and side mirrors of my car. They ransacked the car to see if there was anything they could steal, but they only found cassettes which they took.”
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer of Lagos State, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said, “A teenager was killed in the early hours of the morning. He was killed during a fight involving two rival factions. The police were alerted to the disturbance in that neighbourhood. But by the time our men arrived at the scene, the hoodlums had absconded from the area and the young man was met in a pool of blood.
“His corpse has been evacuated to a public morgue. The area is now under intensive patrol and the community is now calm. Efforts are being made to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime.”
