A 25-year old lottery agent, Olawale Salau, has been stabbed to death by his childhood friend, Kamoru Kushimo. And according to PUNCH, the incident happened on Wednesday, last week on Alafia Street, in the Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State.
Olawale Salau had just gotten his jobless childhood friend released on bail after he was detained for attacking someone in the neighbourhood. But when he started asking his friend to change his aggressive behaviour, a resident, Sola Adebambo (not real name), said Kushimo became angry and accused the deceased of reporting him to people who had been rebuking him.
He said the suspect began insulting the deceased and threatened to end their friendship. Sola said:
“In the afternoon of that fateful day, he verbally assaulted him for hours while we were
all drinking at the club. Salau did not answer him and people asked Kushimo to stop, but he refused. Then he said he wanted their friendship to end. Salau told him that if that was what he wanted, he was satisfied with the decision. But we all became surprised as Kushimo said he wanted to fight with him.
While we were all trying to settle the quarrel, Kushimo grabbed a bottle and smashed it against the wall. The splinters fell on me and injured another friend of ours. But Salau held him from using the bottle. I tried separating them.”
They reportedly went their separate ways after some community leaders intervened. However, unknown to Salau, his friend had gone to waylay him in the dark, armed with a knife.
The resident who spoke to PUNCH Metro said he had gone to attend to the injured friend identified as Flash, when he was returning to the street and saw the suspect racing towards him.
“I didn’t know he had stabbed Salau in the chest and armpit with the knife. But I ran after him. He wanted to jump the fence of a house into the next street, but I grabbed him. He pleaded with me to release him, but I told him he was going nowhere. It was then I saw Salau screaming that he had been stabbed.
I handed Kushimo over to an elderly man and tried to help Salau up. But he was down and nobody even came near because it was dark.”
The victim’s boss, Taofeek Olaoye, said the 25-year-old could not make it as he died before he could get medical help. He said:
“I was about going to bed when I received a call that Salau had been injured. I didn’t know what exactly transpired between him and his friend. When I got there, I carried him into the car, as life was gradually ebbing out of him. We took him to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital at Ikeja, where he was confirmed dead.
It was an unfortunate incident because we had just closed from work when all this happened. He was a very hardworking boy, who had been with me for about eight years.”
PUNCH observed that the street was still tense a day after the incident, as residents discussed in hush tones. Thick blood stains could still be seen at the frontage of the house where the deceased reportedly slumped. Some pieces of furniture and electronic gadgets were burnt beside the blood spot.
It was learnt that angry residents brought out the property of the suspect and vandalised them.
The deceased’s girlfriend, Funmilayo Egunbiyi, said she and Salau were planning their wedding when he was killed. She said:
“I feel so terrible about this loss. He was my confidante. I want justice for him. Also, I am aware there was a third person who instigated the fight. The police should arrest him.”
The Chairman of the Community Development Area and the traditional ruler of the area said they could not comment because they had already gone to bed when Salau was killed. PUNCH Metro, however, learnt that the matter was reported at the Dopemu Police Division in Agege, and the suspect was in police custody.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu confirmed the incident. He added that the corpse of the deceased had been taken to a morgue.
“It involved two friends who were apparently fighting and one stabbed the other to death. The suspect is in police custody while the remains of Salau have been taken to the morgue,” he said.