Suspected Cultists Kill OPC Member, Police Arrest Two

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested two suspected cult members, Makinde Quadri, aka Makay, and Yusuf Ayinla, aka Fresh, for allegedly killing a member of the Oodua People’s Congress, Daniel Alabi, in the Bariga area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the two suspects were members of the Aiye Confraternity and had attacked the 30-year-old while he was talking with a friend, identified as Jamiu.

Our correspondent gathered that the suspects, after stabbing the victim with broken bottles, shot him in the stomach.

Policemen from the Bariga division arrested them after a tip-off from the residents and transferred the case to the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba.

The victim’s friend, Jamiu, said Alabi was killed around 8.30pm on April 30.

He said, “Alabi and I were discussing by the roadside when Makay and his gang members arrived.

“They hit him with all kinds of weapons. Suddenly, Makay brought out a gun and shot him in the stomach. He was taken to a hospital, where he was confirmed dead.”

But Makay, who claimed to have graduated from a university in Ogun State, denied killing the victim.

While accepting to have joined a cult in 2005, the father of one said he was not in the area on the day of the incident.

He said, “I am married with a child and I live in Sango, Ogun State; I am not based in Lagos. This allegation against me is just to tarnish my image because I am popular in the area.

“On the day of this incident, I was in Sango. It was the following day that I came to Lagos. That evening, I saw a man crying. He told me that a boy beat him up because he was disabled.

“I went after the boy and gave him a blow in the mouth. I didn’t know that he was a member of the OPC. His colleagues saw me and came to attack me. They took me to their leader and they later said I was the one that killed their member that died the previous day.”

The second suspect, Fresh, equally denied the allegation, saying his offence was that he was with Makay the night he was arrested.

The Investigating Police Officer, Inspector Oladimeji Kazeem of the SDCI, arraigned the duo before an Ebute-Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court on six counts of murder, belonging to an unlawful society and conduct likely to cause breach of the peace.

The charges read in part, “That you, Makinde Quadri (Makay), Yusuf Ayinla (Fresh), and others now at large, on April 30, 2016, at about 8.30pm on Amudalat Abike Street, off Ajenipa Street, Bariga, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: murder.

“That you did kill one Daniel Alabi, aged 30 years, by shooting him in the stomach and stabbing him with a bottle all over his body.”

The police prosecutor, Olusegun Kokoye, said the offences were punishable under sections 231, 221, 409, 41, 42 and 166 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.

The defendants’ pleas were not taken.

The prosecutor, Kokoye, asked the court to remand them in prison pending the release of legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.

The magistrate, Mrs. A.O. Ope-Agbe, remanded the defendants in prison pending the release of legal advice from the DPP.

The case was adjourned till June 10, 2016.