Pandemonium in Abeokuta as masquerade kills one

Hell was let loose Monday in
Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital after a
masquerade allegedly shot dead an
Islamic cleric identified as Lateef Sabiu
during Egungun festival.
This simultaneously led to a reprisal
attack as youths allegedly razed down a
building belonging to traditional
worshippers in protest against the
murder of one of their members.
Vanguard gathered that the 22-year
Islamic Cleric was allegedly shot dead
Sunday evening while he was on a
motorcycle popularly called Okada
during a ‘stop and search’ in Ijaye.
It was gathered that the masquerade
popularly called “lehin Aponle” was
allegedly armed with guns and other
dangerous weapons.
Confirming the incident Police Public
Relations Officer, PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi,
told newsmen in Abeokuta that the
Command had arrested three persons
along with the masquerade over the
murder of the late Cleric.
Adejobi noted that the Command had
suspended further activities of the year
2013 edition of masquerade festival in
the state.
According to Adejobi, “those we
arrested in connection with the murder
are one Ajayi Olabintan (40), Shittu
Adeyemi, Wahed Babalola and the
masquerade.”
Also speaking over the matter, one of
the community leaders, the Balogun of
Ijaye and Aare of Egbaland, Chief Ganiyu
Babayeju-Alemo, said the crisis has
forced the Egba Traditional Council to
suspend other activities for the 2013
Egungun festival in Abeokuta.
In another development, gunmen on
Sunday night brutally killed a 60- year
old woman, Amoke Musuru, and her
grand-son, 2, Balqis, in Ago-Oba area of
Abeokuta.
Vanguard gathered that, the killers broke
into the one room apartment of the
woman in the family storey building
located within Ajiko compound.
The assassins according to the finding,
smashed the head of the duo with iron
rod without the knowledge of other
residents of the building.
When vanguard visited the scene, blood
of the deceased littered the room, where
the late Baliqs and her grandmother
popularly called Iya Saubana were
murdered.
Vanguard learnt that the police had
taken away the corpses for autopsy,
which were said to have handed over
to the family for burial.
It was gathered that those arrested and
interrogated by the police over the
killing had been also released.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public
Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said
two persons had been interrogated over
the dastardly killings.
According to him, “they (the deceased)
were murdered by unknown persons.
We have visited the scene and two
persons have been arrested for
interrogation to help us with the
investigation.”
However, the children of the late
woman, Saburi and Hakeem Moshood,
expressed shock over the ugly
development.
The children who reside in Ibadan, said
they came to Abeokuta to make
arrangement for the re-burial of their
grandmother whose corpse was
exhumed during the demolition exercise
by the State government before they
met their mother and a child in their
pool of blood.
MURIC also called on the Muslim
community in the area to exercise
patient and desist from taking laws into
their hands, adding that security
operatives and the state government
should be allowed to take charge of the
situation.