- It’s not true – Police
When some operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad allegedly stormed the Computer Village in Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, Ogun State, in pursuit of some “Yahoo-Yahoo” fraudsters and caused commotion in the complex, little did 30-year-old Sunday Opeyemi Ojetunde know that his desperate attempt not to be mistakenly arrested by the armed men would cost him his life.
As Opeyemi, who was one of the phone dealers at the Computer Village, tried to bolt away from the scene, thinking that the FSARS men had come to “extort” him and the other traders, he was said to have mistakenly hit his ribs on an iron gate through which he had attempted to escape.
He felt some sharp pain, but he kept on running in his desperate bid to escape the invading FSARS operatives, not knowing that he had already sustained a life-threatening internal injury in the process!
That night, he went to bed as usual hoping to have a pleasant night rest and a sound sleep. But that was not to be!
In the middle of the night, Opeyemi, popularly called Awilo, developed some complications as a result of the internal injury he had earlier sustained during the raid allegedly carried out by the FSARS men at his place of work.
Narrating how he was allegedly chased to his untimely death by the FSARS operatives, Opeyemi’s elder brother, Emmanuel Ojetunde, said his late younger brother’s desperation to run away from the invading armed men was because of the need to keep the money realised from that day’s sales intact.
According to him, “That was not the first or the second time that the FSARS operatives had been coming to their tarmac at the Computer village in Oke-Ilewo. But that day when they came in the evening, they started chasing everybody. So, when he (Opeyemi) saw them, he also took to his heels, but mistakenly hit the side of his chest on a gate, which later affected his ribs. It was when he was experiencing internal bleeding from the injury in the middle of the night that his neighbours rushed him to a nearby hospital.”
Forty five-year-old Emmanuel, who is a herbalist, however, added a spiritual dimension to the matter, saying if his younger brother had heeded an earlier warning he was given through Ifa divination, he would have escaped his untimely death.
He said that after consulting Ifa, which revealed that some danger was lurking around the corner, he warned Opeyemi to offer some traditional sacrifices to avert sudden death, but he would not heed his advice, claiming that his Christian religion would not permit him to dabble in such traditional practices.
“When I first consulted Ifa, it revealed to me that trouble was coming for somebody that was closer to me. I consulted Ifa again to confirm the person and it revealed to me that it was my younger brother. I told him, but he refused and told me I should not worry. Even my elder sister told me I should not worry about that because he was a Christian. He would say he didn’t believe in any traditional thing and couldn’t even use it. If he had performed the sacrifice that Ifa had asked him to do, he would have escaped this death,” he said.
The FSARS were the ones that chased him to his death. He should not be the child that should have died. I wish I had taken his place. He was the only child that was taking care of me very well
Opeyemi’s 80-year-old mother, Ramota Ojetunde, who has yet to recover from the shock resulting from the death of her son, said she had nothing more to continue to live for, accusing the FSARS operatives of causing her son’s death.
Sobbing, she said that death had taken away the only child that had been caring for her, leaving her devastated and hopeless.
Madam Ojetunde, however, urged the government to investigate the matter thoroughly with a view to fishing out the FSARS operatives, who allegedly caused Opeyemi’s untimely death.
She accused the FSARS men of cutting short Opeyemi’s life and dashing her hope of having shelter over her head as her son had once promised to build a personal house for her to live in.
The octogenarian said, “The FSARS, they were the ones that chased him to his death. He should not be the child that should have died. He should not have been the one that I should lose. I wish I had taken his place.
“He was the only child that was taking care of me very well, even before my other children would come to give me something to eat. He asked me not to work again; that he would be feeding me and also promised to build a house for me, but the FSARS men never allowed him to fulfil that promise before they killed him.”
A member of the Phone Dealers and Technicians Association of Ogun State, who did not want to be identified, expressed regrets at the fatal incident, saying Opeyemi’s death was a great loss to the association.
He described the late trader as a gentleman, who never drank alcohol or smoked as many people of his age.
Explaining how Opeyemi died, the phone dealer said that after the incident at the Computer Village that Saturday, the young man called to inform him that he sustained an injury while trying to escape being arrested by the FSARS operatives, who stormed the complex.
He added that Opeyemi called him again on Monday to ask for N5000, saying that he needed the money to enable him to get some treatment. He said he took the money to him at Isale Igbeyin, from where they headed to the Federal Medical Center, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, but by the time they got to the medical facility, he had given up the ghost.
“On Monday, June 18, he called and told me that FSARS operatives were chasing him and he mistakenly hit his side on a gate, when he wanted to climb over a fence. He had called me around 11:55pm on that same Saturday and I told him that I couldn’t come out at that time and he said no problem. I went to check him on Sunday, but I didn’t see him. He later called me on Monday at about 12:00noon and told me told that he needed N5000 for an operation and I said no problem. So, I decided to go and see him at Isale Igbeyin and I met him lying on the bed. I told him to let us go to the FMC, but immediately we entered the hospital premises, he gave up the ghost,” he noted.
But the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident, said that the FSARS operatives we not responsible for the death of the victim.
Oyeyemi, a deputy superintendent of police, told our correspondent that none of the FSARS operatives had anything to do with the circumstances that resulted in Opeyemi’s death.
