A 32-year-old man, identified simply as Seun, has been murdered in his one-room apartment at Jimoh Balogun area of Ketu, Lagos by gunmen. His neighbours suspect he might have been killed over a recent alleged N3m sports bet he allegedly won.
The assailants were said to have entered Seun’s apartment in the wee hours of Wednesday March 16, 2016 while his neigbhours slept.
When Saturday PUNCH visited the house on Wednesday, it was noticed that a gate had hurriedly been put up to protect the tenants. But the landlady of the house declined speaking on the issue.
The neighbours told our correspondent that Seun stayed alone and they had no idea where his other family members lived.
It is not entirely clear in what condition Seun’s body was found as his neighbours who have been scared of police arrests, were economical with information.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that after the police took his body away the morning after the incident, many residents of the area including business owners and patrons of sports betting centres, were rounded up and locked up.
Thirty-seven-year old Ademola Adewa, who owns a barbing salon on Olanipekun Street, which is few metres away from the compound where Seun was killed, has been in police custody for almost two weeks over the incident.
He was rounded up along with the people working for him in his shop.
One of the arrested men from his shop told our correspondent that the police never told them what evidence they had against them when they were arrested.
The young man, who pleaded anonymity said, “Our boss (Adewa) is not connected to Seun in any way. Seun only came to our shop to get a haircut. He came here to relax sometimes.
“Some people claimed that the people who came to kill Seun that night parked their vehicle in front of our shop. The police just came to our shop and arrested all of us because of that. They even arrested some of our customers who were getting haircut as well. But we were later released except our boss, whom the police have continued to detain for no reason.”
The police also raided many sports betting centres around Ketu and arrested the operators and people who patronised them.
A NaijaBet operator, Adesola Ahmed, who operates on Anibaba Street, which is several streets away from where the victim was killed, told our correspondent that he spent at least a week in custody without being told why he was being held.
“The police just stormed our street that day and I heard people running. I came out of my shop to find out what happened and people were saying the police were raiding people because of someone killed over the money he won in sport betting. I was locked up in a cell at the state CID (criminal investigation department) for a week. They just came one morning and released some of us,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Dolapo Badmus, did not respond to a text message seeking her comment on the case, while she did not pick calls to her line.