New Year mystery: missing Alfa found in well

The well

Front view of the house

Alfa Sule Kazeem was among thousands of people living at Agbando area of Ogun State who had planned to celebrate the New Year with their wives and children in a grand style.

But these grand plans came to naught when on New Year day, rather than celebrate and basked in the warmth of his young wife and kids, Kazeem was found dead in an 18 feet well.

 Kazeem lived at Shoneye Street, off Fasho bus stop, with his youngest wife Monsurat and four children, while his corpse was discovered in the well located at Olaoluwa Street, off Oluwo bus stop. Oluwo bus stop is the bus stop before Fasho. It is a walking distance from each other.

Kazeem’s corpse was found in the well three days after he went missing. When the corpse was finally brought out of the well, it came out in bits and pieces.

He had decomposed and his body parts could not be brought out intact. One of the residents, a hair dresser told the Daily Newswatch: “His hands and legs were brought out differently. They were no longer attached to the body. He was swollen and smelling.”

According to his wife Monsurat, he left home on December 30 to go and cut herbs for a work he was preparing for somebody as an Alfa and was not seen again until New Year day.

She was at home on New Year day, ruminating on the next line of action to take, when somebody called her that her husband had been found.

She had dashed to the scene with a pounding heart. Monsurat expected so many things, but one of them was not the corpse of her husband inside an 18 feet well.

Monsurat promptly fainted and was carried home by sympathizers.

When she finally regained consciousness, the reality of her situation dawned on her. She broke down in great lamentation, mewling like a wounded animal. Monsurat held her four kids tightly to her chest and cried like her heart would break.

All these were however narrated to DailyNewswatch by residents.

When Daily Newswatch went to Agbando in the first week of January to see Monsurat, she was said to have gone to her husband’s village in Ilorin Kwara State with the children for a special Muslim prayers and rites for her deceased husband.

On January 7, Daily Newswatch returned to Agbando. Monsurat was found in an uncompleted building doing the laundries with her mother. This building was also where Kazeem had also lived before his demise.

Monsurat vehemently insisted that she didn’t want media coverage of the incident.

Her words: “I don’t want to see my pictures in the papers or televisions. I don’t want to see my husband’s picture in the papers or televisions. I don’t have anything to say! He’s dead and gone! I have left everything to God.”

 Even when Monsurat reluctantly tried to speak with the journalist, her mother cautioned her against such a move.

The mother told the journalist: “We don’t want trouble! She might talk now and get an innocent person into trouble. Moreover, if her husband’s picture is seen in the papers, her husband’s people might start giving her another round of troubles. We’re already having problem with them over the children. They wanted to take the children from us. We just prefer to leave things the way they are. The man is dead, let’s leave it at that!”

The grieving widow however reluctantly agreed to explain how her husband went missing.

“It was on December 30. He was an Alfa you know. He told me that he was going out to cut herbs. We waited for long but he didn’t come home. It was when some visitors came to the house to look for him, that I started calling his line, but it was not going through. It was not even ringing! The next day, I started running from pillar to post, asking friends and family members, if they had seen or heard from him. I even went to Agbando Police Station, but he was not.”

Monsurat further explained that she had also gone to different unconventional places, seeking for answers, but she was repeatedly told that Kazeem was ‘somewhere very deep.’

And while their neighbours went on with preparation for the New Year celebration, Monsurat’s home was quiet like a house of mourning.

It was on that special day that she got news of Kazeem. But it turned out to be disheartening news.

“Somebody came to call me that they’ve found him. I didn’t know he was inside a well. On the day he was going to cut herbs, he met an old man who saw him entering the compound where the well was located! He told the old man that he was going to cut herbs.

“By the time we declared him missing, the old man was not around. He had gone for a church retreat. It was after the old man returned and found out that my husband was missing that he told people that he saw him entering the compound.”

As soon as people heard that someone saw Kazeem walking into the compound, the search party made a beeline for the premises.

Immediately they entered the compound, an awful stench assailed their noses.

A particular woman among the search party was said to have first sighted the well. She drew others attention, pointing out that dried leaves covering the well appeared broken, like someone stumbled on it.

 It was further claimed that as she drew closer to the edge of the well, goose pimples broke out on her body. She started shivering for reasons people could not fathom.

A man said to have a specialty in  dredging deep well was contracted. Fire fighters were also invited. When the pit of the well was finally reached, sure enough, there was the decomposing body of Alfa Kazeem!

 He was recognized by the short and top he worn to leave home that fateful day.

Daily Newswatch gathered that Monsurat was the youngest of the deceased’s five wives. Others had children for him, but left the marriage due to irreconcilable differences. Kazeem was just in his early forties before his death.

Monsurat, who is a full time house wife, revealed that the mosque where the late Kazeem used to act as Imam, whenever the chief Imam was not around, had promised to help with the children education.

Asked if the members would help the kids to university level, she looked confused. It became apparently that she had not given it much thought. Asked if she had rather preferred to be given money to start off a business of her own, she also looked bewildered.

The death of Kazeem is quite mystifying, considering that was not the first time he had been going into the compound to cut herbs. What happened on that day is a mystery that may never be solved.

When Daily Newwatch went to the scene where Kazeem died, the well had been covered with an Iron Gate and blocks placed on it.

 It was also gathered that the compound which was fenced all round, had grasses growing everywhere. Residents revealed that the land belonged to a lawyer. The lawyer had fenced the land and even fixed gate to keep trespassers from going in, but Kazeem had none the less gone into the land.

The gate was alleged to have been damaged and removed by vandals.

Chief (Mrs.) Bolanle Abeni Omolokun, vice President of hoteliers in the area and also matron of Ope-ilu, former Moboluwaduro Chairperson, group 11 CDA, area 9, said such tragic event was rare in the area.

Mrs. Omolokun, who is the first female to be a chair person in the area, opined that the death of Kazeem could have been averted if the gate had been intact and locked.

She added: “If the gate was locked, nobody would have entered the compound. But the gate is broken. I heard that the land has been up for sale for a while now.”

She further said that she would call on the current chairman to call the owner of the land, to make sure repairs were carried out on the gate.

“The fence is high, but the gate is bad,” said Mrs. Omolokun. “As matron, I’ll call the elders in the community to do something to make sure this sort of thing does not happen in this community again!”

Asked if she thought Kazeem could have been pushed into the well, considering the fact that he had been frequenting the site to cut herbs and thus probably knew about the location of the well, she said: “It’s only God that knows the truth. I don’t know what transpired that day.”

Confirming the incident, the Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, said: “The matter was reported at Agbando Police Station. When our men got there, the body was already decomposing. The family of the deceased said they wanted to go and bury him according to Muslim rites. We allowed them. The well is located in an uncompleted land. Though no arrest had been made, but our men are presently trying to interrogate residents around the area and also invite the owner of the land.”