I f not for providence, Mrs. Ganiyat Ademola and her four-yearold son, Damola, would have lost their lives, or even suddenly become disfigured and handicapped, when Ismaila Azeez Taiwo, attacked mother and son with a liquid substance suspected to be acid.
Twenty-six-year-old Ismaila, The Point learnt, had been at loggerheads with Ademola over her alleged refusal to quit his late father’s property in Onipanu, Ota in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Ismaila was said to have picked quarrel with Mrs. Ademola, who is said to be a younger sister to his father, since last year, following the death of his father and owner of the property, Mr. Azeez Taiwo Bamgbola.
It was gathered that Ismaila’s father had, before his sudden death last year, given his younger sister, Mrs. Ademola, a room apartment inside the building for her to occupy with her son, Damola.
But suddenly, early last year, Ismaila’s father fell ill and when all efforts to treat him of the undisclosed ailment failed, he was taken back to his hometown, Osogbo, apparently to seek better treatment.
Two months after his transfer back to Osogbo, Ismaila’s father lost the battle to get healed and gave up the ghost. Shortly after the demise of his father, Ismaila, who is Taiwo’s first male child, was said to have summoned a meeting in Ota, where he was said to have given an order that all the tenants living in the property, including his aunt, should quit immediately.
Shocked by Ismaila’s quit order to all the occupants of the house, Taiwo’s family members intervened, saying that the young man lacked the authority to send all the tenants packing, especially since his older siblings were not part of the decision.
The issue was said to have generated tension between Ismaila and his father’s family members, who were said to have accused him of wanting to reap where he did not sow, as he was nowhere to be found when his father was dying and needed his presence and assistance.
Ismaila, who was said to have been angered by the outbursts of the family members against him, allegedly left the meeting in annoyance and vowed to deal with them all soon.
Apparently taking Ismaila’s threat with some levity, his father’s family members called his bluff. But penultimate Saturday night,Ismaila decided to make good his threat in company with a friend of his, now at large.
Ismaila and his friend were alleged to have arrived within the vicinity of the house unnoticed and had stealthily walked to the part of the building, where the room occupied by his aunt and her child was located.
Armed with a liquid substance suspected to be acid, Ismaila and his friend allegedly opened the window of Ademola’s room and saw her feeding her four-year-old son, Damola.
The two of them were said to have immediately poured the acid on the mother and child.
They also quickly took to their heels as the victims began to shout that some people had bathed them with acid.
Although the acid only caught Ademola on some part of her leg, her son, Damola, was not that lucky as the liquid substance fell on his head and washed down the rest of his body, causing serious burns.
The loud cries by Ademola and her son attracted other tenants and residents of the area.
“Ismaila just wants to get rid of me and my son by all means. He wants us to leave this house so that he can let it out and start collecting the rent, but his father, who was my brother, gave me this room to live in,” she said.
A tenant, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The family had thought that Ismaila was joking and making empty threats, when he ordered the woman and every other tenant in this house to pack out.
Until that night when he and his other friend came to attack her aunt and her son with acid, everybody had thought it was his usual manner of harassing people.”
At first, Ismaila and his friend disappeared into thin air. But luck ran out on the young man, when members of the vigilance group in the area apprehended him as he tried to escape.
His friend was, however, lucky as he escaped the chase by the vigilance group operatives.
It was while still combing the area for the two suspects that the residents of the area saw Ismaila being interrogated by operatives of the vigilance group in the area, who had earlier apprehended him.
Other tenants and residents in the area, who did not join in chasing Ismaila and his friend, immediately rushed Ademola and her son, now writhing seriously in pain from the burns inflicted on them by the acidic substance, to the Central Specialist Hospital in Ota, Ogun State, for treatment.
But when the doctors at the hospital saw that the degree of burns already suffered by the mother and child from the acid attack by Ismaila and his alleged partner-in-crime could not be adequately handled by them, they quickly referred the two victims to the General Hospital in Ikeja, Lagos, for further treatment.
The vigilance group operatives in the area later handed over Ismaila to the police at the Sango Ota Division.
But due to the enormity of the crime committed by the suspect and his runaway accomplice, the police in the area immediately transferred him to the Ogun State Police Command Headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta.
Another tenant, who simply identified himself as Wale, commended the vigilance group and the police for arresting the suspect.
A resident of the area, Goke Omoniyi, said that Ismaila had become notorious in the Onipanu area, due to his incessant street-fighting and other unusual behaviours.
“Ismaila lives in Ibadan and it’s from there that he comes into Abeokuta to cause trouble every now and then.
So, the police should not let him off the hook because if he’s set free, he may commit more heinous crime,” Omoniyi said.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident and the arrest of the suspect.
Oyeyemi, an assistant superintendent of police, said that the suspect would be charged to court at the conclusion of the ongoing investigations into the matter.
He added that efforts were still being made by the police to apprehend Ismaila’s accomplice, who had been on the run since the incident.
“The suspect is with us and he will be taken to court to face the full wrath of the law. As soon as we are through with our investigations, he will be charged with attempted murder,” the PPRO said.
