Shaking her legs vigorously as she sat on a plastic chair at the middle of their one room apartment at 19 Taiwo Ibrahim street, Igando, Mrs Adeleke gave a blank stare to everyone around her.
Tried as she could to betray her emotion by shedding some tears, her tear bags failed to drop any. Rather, she poured out her fury and agony by intensifying the velocity while her shaking legs. Indeed , fate has played an unkind role to Mrs Adeleke. First, was the death of her husband, a death that saddled her with the responsibility of taking care of her children, alone. This she struggled to achieve by toiling day and night selling whatever she could lay her hands on. Just when she was preparing to heave a sigh of relief, news reached her at the bus-stop where she sold food , Monday night, that tragedy had struck again! This time around, it involved her only son, Olalekan Adeleke.
- Journey to death
37-year-old Adeleke, popularly known as star boy, was allegedly killed by a Hausa food vendor in Igando area, during an argument over N30 owed him. Adeleke, a commercial bus driver visited a canteen owned by his assailant identified as Adamu, at college bus-stop at about 11pm. As he requested for a pack of noodles and two eggs to be prepared for him, little did he envisage that would be his last meal on earth. After eating, he was given a bill of N230. But he was said to have paid Adamu’s son N200. When Adamu was informed about the payment, he reportedly engaged the commercial bus driver in a verbal confrontation, insisting that the exact amount must be paid. Explaining what transpired inside the kiosk used as canteen, another customer, Kehinde Ayanduro, who was also at the canteen, said he intervened by appealing to Adamu to allow Adeleke go home and bring the balance of N30. Speaking with Crime Guard during a visit to the scene, a visibly shocked Ayanduro, who claimed to have also been attacked by Adamu while trying to intervene said
: “ At about 11.05 pm that fateful night, I went to Aboki’s (Adamu) place to eat Indomie . By the time I got there, star boy (deceased ) had finished eating and offered aboki’s son N200 but the boy said the total money was N230. When he took the money to his father, he (Adamu ) started shouting and brought out a stick which had a nail on it. He chased star boy(Adeleke) across the road but people stopped him.
“Few minutes later, Star boy (deceased) brought the N30 and gave it to Aboki’s son. As he handed him the money , he asked if it was because of just N30 that his father was embarrassing him. Aboki heard his voice from inside and rushed out with the wood again. He hit Lekan on his ribs with it. At this point, Lekan tried to dispossess Adamu of the wood. “When I saw that Adamu was having an upper hand over star boy (Adeleke), I stood up and attempted to collect the wood from aboki, only for him to land it on my hands and one of my legs. I then fell down writhing in pains. By then, Lekan had left the shop, placing one of his hands on the injured rib. But aboki ran after him and landed the wood on his head. The nail on the wood sank into Lekan’s skull. Aboki tried to forcefully remove it but could not. Star boy groaned and fell right in the middle of the expressway. I and some customers rushed to where Lekan was and discovered he was motionless. We called aboki to come and take him to the hospital but he brought a bowl of water and poured on Lekan’s head, yet, he remained motionless. When he discovered that Lekan was not breathing again, he took to his heels. As we were chasing him, he brought out a charm from his pocket and started dangling it, daring anyone to come close to him. In the process, some charms dropped from his pockets (displaying them). Aboki then ran to a school in Igando and jumped inside a drainage where he remained until the arrival of the Police”. Residents said that the suspect had always threatened to kill anyone who crossed his path, boasting that nothing would happen to him thereafter. Youths protest The death of the father of one sparked off protest the following day as some youths demanded that justice be done. The angry youths burnt down the suspect’s kiosk. Some police vehicles were sighted at a petrol station close to the scene, apparently to checkmate any likely uproar by the angry youths. Colleagues of late Adeleke were also seen around. They stayed off work on Monday to mourn the demise of one of their own whom they described as an easy going person.
- Agony of a bereaved mother
Meanwhile, the bereaved aged mother who was yet to come to terms with the rude shock of the demise of her only son, was sighted at her apartment mourning the loss. She described her son’s death as the worst tragedy that had befallen her in life .The first word she muttered was “ my dependant , my hope and joy is gone. The only son who made me to forget the pain of being a widow is gone”… at this point, sympathizers who thronged her house began to console her . Narrating how the news reached them, younger sister to late Lakan, Taiwo Adeleke said “We were still at the junction where we sold food when someone called me on the phone , to come to college bus-stop that something had happened to my brother. Immediately mama heard, she sprang up from her seat and started rolling on the floor crying. When I tried to calm her down, she said she knew all was not well with Lekan. We all rushed to the scene, where we saw Lekan’s motionless body on the ground . Mama wanted to go and touch it but some people held her back because it is a taboo in Yoruba land for a mother to touch the corpse of her child. She has not been herself since then”, Taiwo said.
- Premonition
It was obvious that late Adeleke could have had premonition of tragedy ahead, as Crime Guard gathered that he had informed his mother two weeks ago, of his intention to go to Ilorin for Teblic ( Islamic study ) for six months. He was said to have asked his mother how she would be able to cope for that long without him. This was because, he always sent her money weekly. Along the line, he broke down in tears, saying he would miss his mother. She was said to have also shed some tears, as she patted her son at the back, unknown to her that she was only rehearsing his death.
- Police release corpse
Adeleke’s corpse was released to his family Wednesday for burial, although the family complained that it was not released on time in order to have him buried according to Islamic rites. Adeleke as gathered, was buried in the property he bought in Sango Otta, Ogun state.
- Where is my daddy
As preparation for his burial was on, late Adeleke’s eight -year-old daughter, Rokibat, innocently demanded to see her daddy. This was followed by a prolonged session of wailing by family members. Her grandmother snuggled her close and whispered into her ears, that her daddy was fine. Mother of late Adeleke’s child, Fatimo Olufemi stated that the last conversation she had with him was a promise he made to rally round for their daughter’s school fees.
She said : “I was at my mother’s place at Isheri Idimu when my brother called me on phone, to inform me that the father of my child was dead. I saw him last on Friday, two days before he left this wicked world. He promised he was going to intensify effort at raising our daughter’s school fees and instructed me to appeal to the school authority to give him till the end of this week to pay because the school threatened to send away those who did not pay their fees. He was not a rich man but he ensured that our daughter got the best he could afford . His death is a big blow to me because I do not know how to cope, particularly regarding our child’s education”, she stated.
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