Church drummer arrested for attempted assassination

Homicide detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos State, have arrested a church drummer, Mr Alex John, for the attempted assassination of a mother and daughter at the Isheri area of Lagos State.

John was said to have scaled the fence into the house of the 52-year-old widow, Mrs Conform Isong and attacked her with a knife.

When Conform’s daughter, Emmanuella 17, heard the screams of her mother, woke up and tried to the masked armed man. The man, however, turned on her, stabbing her on five different parts of her body.

The suspect was alleged to have bribed a security guard, working at the gateway estate, with N3000 in order to allow him access into the community, where the victims’ house is located.

The incident occurred Tuesday last week around 2am, at Oluwakemi Street, Isheri Oke, along Ibadan Expressway.

Recalling the event of that day, Conform said: “On that fateful day, my daughter and I were sleeping when we heard someone banging loudly at the door. We opened the door to check what was happening; before we could even blinked, a masked man brought out knife and said we were finished, that he had come to kill us. Before I could utter a word, he had moved close to me and started stabbing me.
“My daughter, who was sleeping, heard my shout and rushed out from her room. She tried to stop him from stabbing me and also tried to unmask him. He overpowered my daughter and stabbed her at five different parts of her body.”

Conform added: “At that point, I had lost a lot of blood. I couldn’t scream. It was the shout of my daughter that woke our neighbours. They rushed to our apartment only to see us in a pool of our blood. The assailant escaped by scaling the fence, in the same way he gained entrance into our compound.”

 
Emmanuella said: “What surprised us most was that the assailant did not demand for money, phones or valuables from us. He was only shouting that he had come to finish us. I was sleeping in my own room when I heard the cries of my mother; it was her cries that woke me. When I tried to stop him from further stabbing my mother, he turned on me and stabbed me on the neck and other parts of my body. When he noticed that some people were coming. He escaped.  Immediately the assailant escaped, some neighbours rushed us to Isheri Police Station to report the incident. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in charge of Isheri Police Station ordered that we should be taken to hospital for medical attention.”

Emmanuella added: “It was when they unmasked the assailant that they knew he is Alex John, who lives in the neighborhood. I know him; he’s a drummer in a church in our community. After he left our apartment, he went to another neighbour’s house to steal a laptop; that was where he was arrested and handed over to the police.”

The suspect, who is in the custody of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, was said to have refused to make any confession since his arrest. He had also refused to explain why he attempted to kill mother and daughter.