A gang of suspected cultists have accosted and killed a 25-year-old Muslim cleric, Alfa Rahmon Alabi, because he refused to buy them some hemp in the Ayobo area of Lagos State.
Alfa was headed for late night prayer on the fateful day of Thursday, July 9, 2015 before the hoodlums met him and requested that he bought them some hemp which the Alfa told them was against his faith.
The irked assailants felt abused and consequently attacked the Alfa, took his mobile phone and stabbed him to death when he ran after them to recover his device.
According to Punch, a friend of the victim, who asked not to be named, said Rahmon was attacked when he got to a junction where the cultists had their hideout.
He said, “Alfa was very popular around here and we all loved him. He had nothing to do with cultism. In fact, he served as the muezzin and also woke people up with songs every morning for the Sahur, preparatory to the fasting.
“On Thursday night around 10pm, he said he was going for prayer. When he got to Kaka Junction, the cult members stopped him and told him to buy hemp for them.
“He refused and said he was on his way to the mosque for a prayer. He showed them his Quran as a proof.
“Then the cultists said if he knew what was good for him, he would but the hemp because they were Eiyemembers (cultists).
“He replied them and said, ‘The Eye (birds) I know do not live with humans, they stay in the forest’. They became angry that he had the boldness to reply them.
“They then collected his phones and stabbed him.”
The deceased from Iseyin, Oyo State, who also worked as a bricklayer was married with three children.
His wife, Kabirat Alabi, said, “He told me that he was going to work and he would be going for a night prayer from there. It was the following morning that I was called that he had been killed.”
The late Alfa’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Sherifat Olubode, called for justice while appealing to the government to assist in raising his children.
Meanwhile, four out of the six cultists have been apprehended by the police according to a community leader, Demola Olota,.
He said, “He was going for Itikhaf, which Muslims observe 10 days to the end of the fasting period. The six cultists asked him for money for hemp, but he refused. He ran away from them, but they pursued him and stabbed him to death. Four of them have already been arrested.”
The state police spokesman is yet to issue an official statement concerning the incident.
The corpse of the deceased has been deposited in a mortuary.
