It was like a movie scene. As the man drove into his compound at 6 Mustapha Street in Baruwa, Ipaja, Lagos, some hoodlums on motorcycles swooped on him, bundled him into the trunk of his Lexus 330 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and sped off.
His fellow tenants watched as they went away with Tony alias, Yayo whose body was found the next day near Maryam Hall, about three streets away.
It was learnt that his killers dumped his mobile phone on his body and made away with his SUV.
According to the residents, Tony’s death was the beginning of their woes.
A tenant who gave her name as Kemi, said all the residents have vacated the compound, adding that they were advised by the agent to leave after another tenant, Chris Igombor was wounded on Saturday night, Fridays after Tony was killed.
Kemi told The Nation that she and many others left the compound before Igombor was attacked, attributing their exit to threats from the late Tony’s siblings and strange faces.
She said: “The compound has seven flats. Five flats are on the main building and two at the boys, quarters. When we heard of his death, other neighbours gathered and went to his flat to commiserate with his wife and siblings. While we were there, some weird looking men about 15 in number came in and we all left.
“We decided to have a meeting to discuss security related issues in order to forestall a recurrence of such incident but one of Tony’s brothers came there and was shouting that why is it now we want to have the meeting? That is it after his brother has been killed we would call for meeting? That they knew we (tenants) were jealous of Tony and that they would ensure we don’t have peace.
“One of their sisters, who is a policewoman also said the same thing and threatened some of us. In fact, they were attacking me that I knew when Tony got back and I knew he was attacked but I kept quiet. I asked them if I was the gate man or the one who usually opened the gate for their brother whenever he came back home. But the woman threatened me and said so many frightening things.
“The next thing she made a call and some guys came to the compound saying “you people have killed Tony, you won’t have peace in this house. So that night, a lot of us left the house and sought shelter elsewhere. I packed some of the things I would need and stayed away.
“Two people stayed back to pack their things. One of them later called me that those weird looking people came back and were shouting. That they had to call their relatives outside the premises who invited the police and the boys were escorted out of the compound. I was told that the policemen that came also warned Tony’s relatives to stop intimidating other tenants because of their brother’s death.
“But on Saturday night, one of the neighbours, Igombor was attacked by armed robbers. They hit his head with a gun and they took his money, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, phones and those of his wife as well as his laptop. He was rushed to the hospital where the injury was stitched.
“So, on Monday, the agent called for a meeting but only three of us attended. Other tenants didn’t show up. He then advised that for now, we should all vacate the premises so that things would calm down.”
Igombor said he did not know if there was any link between his attack and the threats.
The robbers, he said, came to the compound around 8pm on Saturday and used his daughter who was outside as bait.
Igombor said: “Honestly, I wouldn’t want to talk on Tony’s family’s behaviour. I also don’t know if there’s any link to the attack. But they really threatened us especially Kemi. There was rancour and tempers ran high.
“What happened on Saturday was that the gate was still opened. It was around 8pm and my daughter was outside my apartment. The armed robbers just escorted her into my apartment and immediately they saw me, they hit me on the head with their gun.
“They collected the cash I had at hand which was about N30,000, they took my laptop, phone, my wife’s phones and my ATM cards. They asked for my pins and threatened that they would come back for me if I gave them wrong pins. So, I gave them the pins of the two cards.
“Before I could call my banks to block the cards, they had already cleared all the money inside. I had N9,000 in one account and N30,000 in the other.
“While they were still at my place, some of them were dancing to the music I had on, while others robbed me. It was when they were leaving that one of them saw blood gushing from my head and he told me to go and wash my head. They locked us in one room. We stayed there until they had gone before we came out and I went to the hospital for treatment. I went to Ipaja Police Station and complained afterwards.
“Yes, there’s no one at the compound for now. The agent said they have to do certain repairs to improve security. It may take a week or so.”
The late Tony’s siblings declined comment. One of his brothers, Mark, who was contacted handed the phone to a woman, who passed it to another man that said he was a policeman and wouldn’t speak on the issue.
At the time of this report, the command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP) had not replied our text.
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