15-year-old thug kills trailer driver over money

A 15-year-old street urchin, on Tuesday last week, bludgeoned a trailer driver to death at the Iyana-Ipaja, area of Lagos State, over money.

The incident was said to have occurred around 10pm, after the driver’s trailer developed fault at Iyana-Ipaja.

One Temitope, a trader, who witnessed the incident, said that after the driver’s trailer developed fault, he parked it by the roadside.

He was attempting to fix it, when a group of young boys, appeared from nowhere and started demanding for money.

Trying to scare them, the driver grabbed a machete from inside his trailer and waved it in a threatening manner. But rather than get scared, the boys got angry.

One of them was said to have picked an iron rod and slammed it on the driver’s head. The driver collapsed and died instantly.

Recollecting the incident of that fateful night, Temitope said: “After the driver’s trailer developed fault, the man couldn’t call any mechanic because it was late. He tried to see what he could do, to get it working. Before he knew what was happening, some area boys surrounded him. They demanded for money. They said the trailer was parked on their road.  He tried to explain that he didn’t have money, but they refused to listen. Meanwhile, the number of the boys continued to increase as the driver argued.  Apparently trying to scare them, he grabbed a machete from his trailer and threatened them.

“But his action only angered the boys. One of them, who couldn’t be more than 15-year-old, grabbed an iron rod and slammed it on the man’s head. He fell down and died instantly.”

According to Temitope, immediately the incident happened, some traders alerted Mosholashi Police Station. Some minutes later; policemen from the station arrived and moved the body.

It was gathered that two among the street urchins were arrested on Wednesday. But the boy that wielded the killer tool is still at large.

Mr. John Awe, who reacted on the incident on his Facebook Wall, said the trailer driver was in his seventies. Awe said that the old man was killed for refusing to pay ‘owo oko taku.’
 He further said: “The 70-year-old man was killed by street urchins because he refused to pay 'owo oko taku' which literally means 'vehicle broke down fee.'
“The street urchins at Iyana Ipaja wanted N5000 from the man for running out of diesel, refueling and fixing a fault in his truck. When he refused, they hit him on the head with an iron. So, how is that not an armed-robbery? If you demanded for money from people with a threat of violence, that is clearly armed robbery, which carries death penalty. If we classify this social ill as that, and treat it that way, we will begin to have sanity in Lagos.”