Juliana Francis
The late Sunday
A grieving mother, Mrs Helen Akhigbe, has asked the Lagos State Police Command, Homicide Section, to tell her what caused the death of her first son, Sunday Akhigbe, a music producer, at the Alagbado area of the metropolis.
She also wants to know how Sunday’s corpse came to be without some of his dreadlocks and why his pubic hair was clean shaven.
Helen noticed these bizarre things after she heard Sunday was about to be given a mass burial and had rushed down to the mortuary to find out why.
She disclosed that when she saw Sunday’s corpse, she noticed that some of his dreadlocks had been cut and his pubic area shaven. She was disturbed.
Our reporter gathered that the 32-year-old Sunday, a music producer, died, along with a friend, Ajibawo Lawal, in a studio located at Alagbado.
It was also disclosed that four males were inside the studio and were all found unconscious.
When the victims were checked, it was discovered that Sunday and Lawal had died, while others, Glorious Akpan and Dare Obadina, were rushed to the hospital. Akpan had since been discharged, while Obadina is still in a coma.
The incident happened in ‘Coded Music Recording Studio,’ owned by Mr Azeez Murtala.
Although policemen attached to Alagbado Police Station were the first law enforcement respondents on the scene, the matter had since been transferred to the Homicide Section of the SCIID for further investigation and autopsy.
Helen, however, was not too happy with the way police are handling the case. She said the first set of policemen, who got to the scene insisted that Sunday and others became unconscious as a result of generator fumes, leading to the death of Sunday and Lawal, without carrying out an autopsy.
Helen was travelling to Benin for a burial when she received the shocking news of her son’s death. The widow quickly turned back to Lagos.
One of her sons, Imole Akhigbe, a musician, who dashed to the scene after receiving a phone call about the incident, said that the studio looked like there had been a struggle.
His words: “There was a can of Raid insecticide, blood stains, food vomited and Sunday’s sandal inside the studio. The standing fan was on the ground. The generator was inside the studio, and I know there was no way my brother would have carried a generator into the studio, shut the door and then go to sleep. Something happened in that studio and we want to know what. My brother and Lawal were not killed by generator fumes.”
Imole explained that on September 3, 2020, he had received the disturbing phone call from a guy called ‘OG Boy.’
He said: “I rushed down there and met policemen there. When I asked what happened, they said I should wait. I told them I wanted to see my brother’s corpse for identification, but they refused to allow me access. They dragged me by my trouser. There was a struggle. They then told me right there, that my brother died from inhaling generator fumes, without carrying out an autopsy. I was asked to write a statement, which I did.”
Imole recollected that the owner of the studio, Murtala, had told him that Sunday and Lawal were asleep when they died.
“I told him that I couldn’t believe him because both of us were not there and couldn’t possibly know what happened. He hung up and later told the police that we had been threatening him,” said Imole.
Helen said that she had tried to get the corpse of her son from the Police for burial, but was educated that an autopsy must be done. When she told them that she was just a poor widow and didn’t have money for an autopsy, the police told her they would foot the bill.
She added: “The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) is called Kola. He took me to his boss, Mr Chris, who told me that the autopsy would entail my son being butchered. When he mentioned the word butchered, I became scared and worried. He said Sunday’s brains, heart, kidneys, liver and other body parts would be removed. When I heard that, I told him I no longer wanted an autopsy to be done. I didn’t want my son to be butchered. So I asked him for my son’s corpse, that I was ready to waive the autopsy. Chris said that I should go and swear an affidavit that I was the mother of Sunday and that I wanted to waive autopsy. This led to my going to swear an affidavit and writing a petition to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of the SCIID. Chris also told me that my son died from inhaling generator smoke. While crying, I told him that a newspaper reported about my son’s death, but that what the paper wrote was false. Mr Chris asked how I could see what was written in the newspaper when I was crying. I’m just a widow. My husband died very early, leaving five children to me to care for. Now, there are four remaining. I just need to know what happened to my son!”
She further said: “The police were just pushing me around. When I initially told them I didn’t want to make a case, they told me that an autopsy needed to be done to know the cause of death. I asked how long it would take; they said it might be soon or late. They were not forthcoming with information. When I heard that my son’s corpse would be butchered like an animal, I told Chris that I was no longer interested in the autopsy. I asked him to release my son’s corpse for burial, he said that I should go and swear an affidavit, stating that I was the mother of Sunday. Chris gave me a sample of a letter of waiver. He said I should follow the format and addressed it to the DCP, SCIID that I wanted to waive the autopsy and asked for the release of my son’s corpse for burial. He told me that my son died of generator fume, hard drugs and other things. I asked him how many things could cause death. When I realised that Chris was scaring me, so that I wouldn’t ask for an autopsy, I changed my mind and then asked that the police should go ahead with the autopsy. I want to know the truth of what killed my son.”
Helen, even while waiting for the autopsy result, said she didn’t believe generator fumes was the cause of Sunday and Lawal’s death.
She said: “Generator fumes couldn’t have caused Sunday to vomit everything he ate, caused Lawal’s neck to be twisted and another one of those boys to vomit blood. Was it also a generator fume that cut part of Glorious Akpan’s hair? Was it generator fumes that cut some locks of my son’s hair and clean shaved his pubic hair?”
Helen said that when she went to the mortuary to check on Sunday’s corpse, she found out corpses were about to be given mass burial.
She said: “It was at the mortuary they told me that police dumped his corpse at the mortuary as an unidentified corpse. I was asked at the mortuary to pay N13, 000 for a coronavirus test to be carried out on Sunday’s corpse before an autopsy could be done. They said if the coronavirus test was not done, nobody would touch his remains.”
Helen argued that the police should have arrested the owner of the studio where her son died, insisting that the man probably knew more than he was letting on. He also said that the person that called police to the scene, shattered the window of the studio and shut the generator should have been arrested and quizzed.
She said that when police continued to hide and seek with her over Sunday’s corpse, someone advised her to seek a human rights activist. She went to Esther’s Foundation, run by Mrs Esther Ogwu.
Ogwu said: “I put a call across to Mr Chris concerning the matter, but he responded that he was not the IPO. Chris told me that they’ll do the autopsy and will not release the corpse. The family needs to know what killed their son in order to have a closure. He died two weeks before his birthday.”
The deceased’s best friend, Ismail Adewale said: “Sunday was my best friend. I still don’t believe he’s dead. It’s like a bad dream. We lived together. We were supposed to stay at home together when he got back that night. But at about 8:30pm, he said he was going back to the studio and that some work needed to be done. We agreed that I should meet him at the studio in the morning. In the morning, someone called and told me that my best friend was dead! I couldn’t believe it.”
Adewale further said: “I don’t believe the narration that he had a generator inside the studio. We need to know who shut the generator, who called the police and who shattered the window of the studio. There are just too many questions begging for answers. I don’t know why this happened. Things were beginning to change for him; fortune was finally beginning to smile on him. In fact, Tu-Face Idibia and Sunday were supposed to have a meeting before this tragedy happened.”
Akpan Glorious, who had been discharged from the hospital, recalled his narrow escape from the clutches of death. He also attempted to shed more light on the event of that fateful night.
His words: “We got to the studio at about 10pm. We started the generator and placed it at the reception area. Immediately after that, Sunday started working. He was balancing his work on the system. At about 11pm or 12pm, I slept off. I woke up to find myself at the hospital.”
When our reporter contacted the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Muyiwa Adejobi, via phone call to get the fact of the matter and also to get more information from police angle about the alleged missing dreadlocks and pubic hair, he didn’t pick his call.
Our reporter also sent a text message to his phone line and WhatsApp platform, but he also didn’t respond.
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