Edward Egigi decided to turn a new leaf and change from his old ways. It was this decision that nearly cost him his life.
Egigi narrowly escaped death in the hands of his former colleagues in the cult last Saturday. He reportedly used to move with some of his peers that were later found to be notorious elements in the society.
He was reported to have once been an acolyte of one Ibrahim Balogun a known notorious gang leader in the state. Egigi was, however, said to have left the gang. It was after that that the when the Benue State-born Egigi learnt barbing hoping to make a living out of it. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship, Egigi got a shop close to a known den of criminals in the area.
From there, some of the bad boys became his customers and his shop was reportedly a meeting point for the hoodlums. When it became increasingly likely that he would be lured back into the gang because of their patronage of his shop, Egigi reportedly relocated to Palm Grove area of the metropolis.
On the day Egigi was beaten to pulp, a detachment of policemen from the state police command had apprehended the said Balogun on charges of being the mastermind of many criminal activities in the area.
With Balogun’s arrest, many of his followers had reportedly trooped to Abule- Oja and Abule-Ijesha axis seeking to avenge the arrest of their leader on any known enemy. The protesting hoodlums were reported to be armed with various weapons including machetes, guns and charms.
By the time Balogun’s cohorts were protesting his arrest, Egigi was leaving his shop to buy petrol for the generating set he uses in his barbing salon.
That was how Egigi ran into the angry hoodlums. Knowing him as an ex-member, one of the protesting hoodlums reportedly pointed at Egigi as being the one that gave police the information leading to the arrest of their leader. Without wasting time, the entire group allegedly swooped on Egigi and gave him the beating of his life.
They reportedly accused him of being the mole that gave away their leader. When they were done with beating him, the hoodlums reportedly called in the police from Sabo Police Station and handed him over to them, claiming he is an armed robber.
Speaking to Saturday Mirror from his hospital bed, Egigi said he never believed he would be alive today. “I never knew I could survive the beating. I really give thanks to God because they did not mean well for me.
It was Yesiru (one of the hoodlums) who first hit me with the cutlass while Melon and others held me down and were beating me. But for the help of a woman that witnessed the whole scene that told the police the truth, they would have roped me in as a robber.
“When we were friends, things were going on well, but when I refused to do some of their biddings, I was sent packing from the fold. They also hated me because I refused to join the Eiye Confraternity that they belong to.
They then accused me of stealing and labelled me a rogue. Since then, they had been looking for ways to get at me. It was because of their problems that I relocated from Abule-Ijesha,” he said.
Egigi had since reported the attack on him at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja. Efforts to speak with the Divisional Police Officer, Sabo Police Division, were futile as his calls were diverted.
But a police source at the station confirmed Egigi’s situation, saying that the matter received a prompt attention from the DPO who immediately set up a team to investigate the assault.
National Mirror
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