How Student, MTN Staff Were Killed By Vigilante In Abeokuta, Ogun State

Tragedy struck in Abeokuta, yesterday,  when  men of the Vigilante Service of Ogun State, VSO, reportedly  shot dead  a student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Moruf Raji, 29, and a staff of a telecommunication company, MTN Nigeria,  Akeem Usman, 32, while chasing suspected robbers.

The  incident occurred at Adigbe, at about 1.00 a.m  when  a team  of the vigilance service allegedly ordered residents of 18A, Sorinola Avenue, Oriyanrin, to open their gate for them to arrest  suspected robbers believed to be hiding in the building. An eye witness told Vanguard News that some of the  residents  who were mostly students refused to open  the gate, suspecting the vigilante men to be  robbers  trying to play smart.

The witness further explained that  Moruf and Akeem  went out from their rooms and opened the gate for them but one of the men of VSO  opened fire on the two men killing them instantly. Vanguard News gathered that men of the VSO  still went ahead to force their way into the compound after shooting the two men and ransacked the rooms, while the victims were bleeding profusely. It was further gathered that, the vigilantes used their patrol vehicle to rush  the victims to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba Abeokuta where they died following excessive loss of blood.

Vanguard  learnt that, Moroof was  a Business Administration student of MAPOLY who was on one-year Industrial attachment and Akeem who was a staff of  MTN that go married seven months ago. According to findings, Akeem worked in  Lagos  but came to Abeokuta to attend  a religious  programme scheduled for 10.00am on Sunday. He was said to have resolved to sleep with a family-friend because of the proximity of the house to the venue of the programme. His driver, Abayomi Awoyajo was also said to have sustained injury  after being battered  by the  members of vigilance during the raid.

Narrating the incident  Abayomi said  they were all inside when at about 1.00am ,the vigilante men  came asking  them  to open the door. “We all thought they were armed robbers, we started running helter-skelter, some of us hid in the wardrobe, while some hid under the chairs,” he said. The 30 year old driver, also said  the two victims in pool of their  blood crawled back into the house,crying loud, while the vigilantes  forced their way into the house to  continue dealing with all of them in a brutal matter.

“They even asked for brother Akeem’s  car key which I gave to them, but, could not be taken out because of the security device installed in it, we were later rushed to the hospital” he explained.

However, as  at the time of  filing this report, all the  members of the vigilante service that were involved in the act  have been arrested by the police from Adigbe station.

The  case  was said to have been transferred  to Eleweran Police Headquarters, Abeokuta but the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Muyiwa Adejobi could not be reached as at the time of filing this report