Six killed as activist escapes assassins’ bullets

Aanu Adegun
While Nigerians were on October 1, 2013, celebrating the clocking of the country 53 years, some suspected cult boys, at the Somolu area of Lagos State, swooped on a known human right activists, Mr. Olatunde Vincent and attempted to snuff out his life.
According to Vincent, the cult boys, numbering over 10 in number, attacked him right in front of his house and even after he dodged series of the flying bullet and took to running for his dear life, they had pursued him.
Before the war the cultists declared on him came to an end, more than six people had been killed, while three persons were injured.
Immediately they fired the first bullet at him, right in front of his house, with his petrified wife and child watching, Vincent had dodged behind a bystander, who was later alleged to be the ‘pointer. for the gang.
This pointer was standing with Vincent, using delay tactics to keep Vincent from going into his house. Every time, Vincent attempted to walk away, the young man would introduce another topic of discussion and Vincent, out of courtesy and politeness, continued to stand with him.
He however noticed that the young man kept stealing glances towards the road. Suddenly motorbikes appeared in the street, with different youths armed and riding like the hounds of hell were after them. In that splint seconds, Vincent noticed that most of the youths, were those who had been declared wanted and who went underground after the police declaration.
The activist was still wondering what the heck had made them to bravely crawled out of their hiding places, when he noticed that they zeroed in on him.
Vincent who had since relocated from Somolu after the attempt on his life, recalled: “They just stopped in front of my house and started shooting into the air. One of them just shot straight at me, at point blank range. I used the guy who had been speaking with me as a shield. They shot him twice. He was part of their gang. Then I took off, running into my house. One of them pursued, shooting.”
Vincent was chased through three connecting doors, to different rooms and until one of the boys finally ran him to earth at the bathroom. All the while he was being chased; the cultist had been pumping his bullets. By the time he finally cornered Vincent, he had just one bullet left.
Laughing gleefully, he shot at Vincent and smirked in satisfaction as blood spurted from the activist’s body. The activist fell to the ground and there was more blood everywhere.
Vincent said: “I don’t know whether because of the amount of blood he saw that made him, not to check whether I was dead or still alive. But he apparently thought I was dead. I later heard that the bullets they used in the local guns were poisoned bullets. I was not supposed to survive such a bullet. Anyway, he brought out his phone, called somebody and told the person that he had killed me. That I was dead.”
Immediately Vincent heard the phone conversation, he continued to play possum until his assailant left. Later his wife and children, who had already started weeping, thinking he was dead as a doornail, entered.
They could not believe their eyes when they saw him still breathing, but nursing a bullet wound. He was sneaked out of the apartment and taken to the hospital.
But no matter how much they tried to smuggle him to hospital, some people sighted him and alerted some of the cultists.
“I heard from reliable sources the cultists were popping champagne, celebrating my demise when someone called and told them that I was still alive. An argument started; with some saying it was impossible. They traced me to the hospital where I was receiving treatment and unleashed hell in that street. But they could not gain access into the hospital. I was later transferred out of that hospital.”
Somolu over the decades has become known as a nest for vipers, with several and myriad of cult members and cybercrime youths, using there as home and safe haven. One man who has always been at the forefront of having a safe community, where residents could walk freely, without fear of being attacked, is Mr. Olatunde Vincent.
However, despite his lofty intentions of having a sanitised Somolu, the strong arms of the cultists who have hitherto taken over the rule of the local government, caught up with him. Luckily for him however, he lived to tell his story after tasting the bitter pellets of the rampaging cultists.
Narrating his near death experiences to Daily Newswatch, Vincent said: ‘I was shot around 1.30 in the afternoon at the front of my house, at No 3, Graig Street Somolu. On that day, as I came in from Market Street, my spirit was telling me things are not well, based on some information I heard.
‘In fact, when I woke up that morning, my spirit told me to sit down at home, but I went out eventually. But when I got to Onipanu, I went back home. Meanwhile, somebody called me that a guy said cultists would come and kill somebody in front of my house. I actually got a colleague of these gangs, who was found in possession of a gun, arrested. Perhaps that was their anger against me.
‘What really happened was that a boy called Sule who lived at Adebiyi Street, Somolu brought a gun to threaten some people but the gun was collected from him and given to another person for safe keeping. However, the person gave him back the gun.”
According to Vincent, Sule was arrested and taken to Ogudu Police Station before he was transferred to SARS. But according to news circulating in the underworld, it was Vincent who orchestrated Sule’s arrest, hence the reason for the threat to kill someone in front of his house.
He further narrated: “A guy told me that one Tayo, a watch repairer in Adebiyi was the one who told him that cultists would kill someone in the front of my house. So I went to see him and ask him.
“On my way back home, as I was about to enter my house, I saw a guy called Jelili.  One of the council guys that arrested Okada boys, so we were discussing together.
“Meanwhile, two days before I was shot, some hoodlums and cultists went to Alade Police Station in Somolu and threatened to burn down the station, claiming that the policemen killed two people.
“I knew it was a lie. It was actually the boy who went to interrupt the policemen in the course of their duty. When I got there, I told them to go back home that if they burn down the police station, innocent residents would suffer for it and it was not as if they were protesting anything.
“I also told them that the police did not shoot anybody. Since they did not bothered to know what transpired between the boy and the policemen. I told them that it was somebody else the police arrested for driving against traffic.
“Any way, I started picking the boys that came to burn the police station out one after the other. Most of them were EFFC boys and I told those that I knew among them, who were genuine Okada riders that they had better not try what they were threatening to do
“I told them that if they burn down the police station, that they would not go scot free. And for the criminals among them, I told them that they wanted to only seize the opportunity to loot and pillage. By this time, they had brought petrol to burn down the station
‘As I was standing outside, discussing with Jelili, I discovered that he looked towards the left, all of a sudden, I saw Jamiu Ologun, Sean Paul, all of them on motorbike. Some few seconds later, I saw others coming on motorbikes also. They were on about five motor bikes; two on each, apart from the riders. They stopped at a nearby junction and the next thing I saw were guns. They were all putting on these red handkerchiefs, tied around their guns
“So when they fired, the first shot was from Kassim Oloriebi, who had just come back from jail.  I dodged that but it hit Jelili, the boy standing in front of me. The second shot hit him again and immediately Jelili fell down. I took to my heels but as I was about to run into the house, I fell down.
“But because they had already made a mistake by shooting Jelili who was with them at Apata bus stop in the afternoon. They were somewhat taken aback.
“Two of them pursued me, while others took control of the street. Eventually, I ran into the toilet and after the fifth attempt, one of them got me. It’s  the one called Afilo who shot  me.
“Luckily for me however, something just came to my mind that I should turn my back and that was how I was hit at the back. One of them started saying that it was me that made them arrest Elewure. That now they had gotten me where they wanted me. He said that the next people on the list were inspector Smart and Taofeek.”
Somolu is a notorious cultist breeding ground in Lagos and probably in the whole of Nigeria at large. Omo Philistini, a teenage cult group, comprising of 13 year olds to 20 year olds is the junior level of cultism in Somolu, while EFCC boys, Aye and Eiye confraternities are the leading senior categories of cults in the area. Residents have become used to gunshots like it’s some sort of a phone ringing tone.  And lives are taken with impunity almost on daily basis
Without gainsaying, Somolu boasts of unprecedented lawlessness in a lawful society and bringing sanity to this metropolitan society seem more or less like a herculean task. The question most residents have gotten tired of asking is this: between the cultists and police, who is in charge at Somolu?