By MUSA JIBRIL
The backstreet neighbourhood of Fatiregun Street, Ilaje Otumara Village, Ebute Metta (West) Mainland Lagos, is by no means a sleepy area but its peace was shattered on January 10, 2019, when a resident at No 17, identified simply as Mr Pius, was alleged to have chased a teenager with a machete in the early hours of morning. But for the timely intervention of an octogenarian who heard the child’s cry of terror and scrambled outside in time to dare the machete-wielding man, the street would have had the murder of a child on its hand.
Residents were troubled by the development because it wasn’t a one-off sinister behaviour from Mr Pius. Six years ago, the same suspect was accused of attempting a diabolical ritual in the early hours of the morning. His victim then was another boy, Sikiru, who was a neighbour’s son. Eventually, issues came to a head and the landlady had petitioned the police to forestall any untoward occurrence.
Two incidents, one perpetrator
When Saturday Sun visited the street, Mrs Olabisi Ogu Williams, whose husband owned the building at No 17 Fatiregun Street was around.
“This is not the first time an incidence of this nature is happening,” she said solemn-voiced and went ahead to give a comprehensive account of the precedent.
Her story: “The first time was in 2013. On that day, as early as 6 am, I got a phone call from our tenants asking us to come around that they had a case of a kidnapper on their hands. And who was the culprit? They said, Mr Pius. It came to me as a shock, the story they told me. He was reported to have called a neighbour’s son into his room, ordered the boy to kneel down and subsequently brought out a knife with its hilt tied with a piece of red cloth. The child, already afraid when ordered to kneel, went hysterical as soon as he saw a knife and other fetish items on the ground. He started screaming at the top of his voice and woke neighbours. But for my presence, irate neighbours would have lynched him that morning. My husband felt it wasn’t an issue to be treated lightly, so we had brought police into the matter. Pius, taken away by the police, was brought back and his house searched. Policemen who ransacked his home found all sorts of fetish items including swaddles of red and black cloth, different candles and a lantern filled with red liquid, whether blood or palm oil, no one knew what it was. He was handcuffed and taken back to the police station with the oddities. I was summoned as his landlady, together with his family members and the family of the boy. He claimed those fetish things were church material. On summoning the child into his room, he had no plausible explanation. He kept saying he didn’t know the boy was the child of a neighbour, and that he wanted to send him on an errand––at dawn? His people too vouched for him that he could not do anything diabolical. He swore that nothing would happen to the child. So, the police handed over the case to the community to settle.”
The second incident on January 10, 2019 also took her by surprise.
She recalled: “Again, I received an early morning call that Pius has done it again. The callers had raved at me suggesting I was the one who allowed him to still be in the neighbourhood because I didn’t chase him out of my property. I was disturbed, that people were now blaming me. My husband, the landlord, was ill and we were going to the hospital that morning, so I couldn’t go to the neighbourhood that day. The next day, early in the morning, I called a gathering of all tenants and neighbours, including elders in the community, among them Mr Eze and Chief Awise of Ojoraland. I asked that the boy be brought to the gathering. The moment he saw Pius he wanted to run away. This gave me concerns.”
Suspect’s inconsistencies and U-turn
Ogu Williams said Pius’ account during the gathering was unconvincing. “He said he was in the house when he heard the boy’s shout, then heard the old man’s voice too. And he came out and asked Baba what happened. He at first denied holding a machete. He immediately reversed himself. He said he was holding a machete and was about to go and sharpen it. Then he changed it again––he had picked it when he heard the boy’s shout, he had wanted to use it to confront whatever danger was outside.”
To forestall mob action, she had assured the people that the elders would settle the issue.
“Mr Eze, who is an Igbo elder, had approached me that Pius is ready to beg and assure the father that nothing will happen to the boy. They wanted me to bring them together again. But I am a very busy person and I am also caring for a sick husband, so we agreed to meet on Tuesday, January 22. The idea was to allay the fears of the boy’s father. I also want to use the occasion to give Pius a last warning to change his weird behaviours, and I wanted him to sign an undertaking if he were to remain in my house.
Pius came there with two other persons and he changed his tune. He claimed he was being intimidated to beg only because he was the only person that came out and went on to argue that he didn’t use his machete and even if the child saw him with the machete, it was because he was trying to file it. One Mr Sunday took the absurdity further: he cornered the then he resorted to force boy’s father and reportedly said something like “that your pikin wey dey sabi person face, if you no see am again make he come sabi person face.” Those words frightened the man and he raised an alarm again. The second person told me directly he has seen my face and would recognize me now since I choose to make a big deal of the incident. He warned that they were going to sue for defamation of character. At that point, I knew it was getting out of hand. So, I wrote a petition and submitted to the DPO of Iponri Police Station.
A father’s version
The first victim, Sikiru, is still living with his mother in the neighbourhood. The second boy, Saban Bamidele, 10, is a Primary One pupil of Banjo Primary School. His father, Dauda Bamidele, a mullah, spoke with Saturday Sun in Yoruba.
“Me and my son went out to throw away household waste at about 5:30 am. Thereafter, I told him to go home while I attend to the call of nature. A few minutes later, I heard his cry for help. I quickly cut short what I was doing. Then I heard a man’s voice too saying “If you dare follow him to my doorstep.” By the time I made it to the street, I saw a man wielding a machete ducked into a side passage. I was afraid to go after him so I raised my voice and woke the neighbourhood. After a few minutes, the man reemerged, standing in front of his door, asking “Wetin happened?” My son kept shouting, “He’s the husband of our customer!” Personally, I don’t know who he is. By the time people gathered and decided we should call him, his wife told us he had gone out.”
He continued: “I moved into this house six months ago. He was living here before my arrival. We never had an issue. I was alarmed when one of his brothers called Sunday, called me aside and said “This issue if it never happened and you are concocting it, it will eventually happen; but if truly it happened, then feel free to pursue whatever course of action you want.” I found such reasoning illogical, so I immediately reported to the landlady and other elders.”
The mullah said the incident left him worried. “The boy’s mother left me some years ago. It was recently I went to take him from them, what would they say if he had been killed that morning? How would I explain it that I left home with him and asked him to go ahead of me and a few minutes later, he was dead?”
He said, “If I have the money to rent an apartment elsewhere, I will not tarry to pack out of this neighbourhood.”
The old man who saved the day
Pa Saidu Ajagbe, 87, was the man whose intervention averted a tragic ending to that fateful morning. A carpenter and former employee of Cappa D’Alberto, he has been resident on the street for 10 years.
The octogenarian, who hails from Kwara State, started with a reflection on the past. “That of Sikiru when it happened, he first tried to lure the boy with N200. But the boy declined his gift.”
This second time, it was the boy’s shout that alerted me and I came out of the bathroom and beheld a man brandishing a machete pursuing a fleeing child. I had raised my voice promptly. I shouted, “if you dare pursue him to my doorstep.” The man turned into the passage and entered his room, only for him to reemerged seconds later, asking me, “Wetin happen?” The boy’s father who had also appeared a few minutes later shouted and wanted to summon the street vigilante, but I told him to go and report to their landlady.”
Pa Ajagbe was an old man who moved about with the aid of a walking stick. “If it was when I was younger, I would have tackled him straight, not minding the cutlass in his hand,” he said.
“This is the second time he is linked to such a disturbing incident, I believe it is high time to take firm action,” he affirmed.
Neighbours’ concern
A few neighbours who spoke with Saturday Sun did have no idea how to explain Pius’ behaviour. A desperate ritualist or a mental case?
A couple of women who spoke on the condition of anonymity expressed disapproval with the way the issue was handled so far.
“The first time, he was allowed to go too easily because people said they did not have money to waste over a court case. But with this second incident, I am now afraid to let my kids go out at dawn,” said the first respondent.
The second declared: “We are helpless in this situation as we cannot take any decision. The decision is of the landlord.”
Chief Ifafemi Jimoh Shodimu, the Awise of Ojoraland, is also a resident. He was unequivocal in his position.
“Left to me, I think he should leave the neighbourhood. We shouldn’t wait untill he commit a tragedy before we act. Some three months ago, a couple of young men beheaded a school boy for money ritual. They were caught and paraded in Ijora Badia. Such an incident should not be allowed to happen here. And this man has twice shown capacity for such evil.”
When Saturday Sun put a call through to Mr. Pius, he said he had no idea about the issue raised by the reporter.
However few minutes later, a lady who claimed to be Pius’s lawyer called the reporter and thereafter started talking on what she called ethics of journalism instead of addressing issues raised about Mr. Pius.