Father of five killed as gay protest turns bloody

A 48-year-old father of five was crushed to death yesterday at the Temidire, Alagbado area of Lagos State, while protesting against a supposed homosexual in the community.

Eye witnesses said that the deceased, Mr. Ganiyu Adebayo, a brick layer, was crushed to death by the vehicle of the supposed gay man, Alhaji Tunji.

The residents in the community were said to have been protesting against the continual residence of Tunji in the community, alleging that he had been raping their boys and terrorizing the community with his hired thugs.

The protesters carried placards with different inscriptions. One of the placards screamed; ‘Alhaji Gay must leave our community! We want peace.’

The man in the centre of the storm, Tunji, when contacted on phone, denied all the allegations.

 The protest started last week with the community members angrily storming to the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, reeling off allegation. The protest continued yesterday, but turned bloody, leading to the demise of Adebayo. The remains of Adebayo had been deposited at Ifo General Hospital Mortuary.

The both protests were led by the Baale, Alhaji Najimu Abioye. Last week the protesters submitted a petition to the State’s Commissioner Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni.

Abioye said: “After we reported him to the police without any action being taken, we decided to come together and staged this second protest. We want the world to know what we’re going through in the community. We were at the Temidire Junction, protesting when he drove pass. I cautioned some of the protesters not to take law into their hands. Unfortunately, he came back to the spot where we were protesting. He came with his thugs and crushed one of us to death. He also injured other protesters.”

Abioye alleged that Tunji had raped many young men in the community, and usually move with hired thugs to extort money from traders and the people building houses in the community.

 “When we confronted him, he claimed he was given the right to act as land agent on behalf of one Abiri family in Sango-Ota. We have been living in this community for over 40 years and had not experienced such wickedness. We cannot sleep with our eyes closed due to fear of being attacked or killed in our sleep by his thugs,” said Abioye.

It was gathered that the matter had been reported at the Alagbado Police Station, but nothing had been done about the complaints, as Tunji allegedly continued to threaten residents with thugs and bragging that that police cannot arrest him.

Another resident in the area, Chief Apanisile Ayo, another said: “We’re tired of the man’s threats! He has thugs who work for him when it comes to unleashing mayhem. That is why we’re protesting; to register our grievances to the Lagos State Government, so that the government can assist us to tame or curtail his excesses. He’s also a gay. He used to lure some of our youths to his house and asked them to undress and rape them.

“We’ve written several petitions to the Lagos State House of Assembly and the state governor on this matter. We learnt the suspect had been chased away from Ibadan, Mushin and Ikorodu. We cannot accommodate him at Alagbado! This is why we are crying out to the authority now!”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations officer (PPRO), DSP Kenneth Nwosu when contacted to confirm the incident, did not pick his calls or responded to text message sent to his phone.