Ten days after 29-year-old tricycle rider, Akeem Ahmed, was shot dead by an assistant superintendent of police identified as Mohammed during an argument at Shasha, Akowonjo area of Lagos, a manhunt for the culprit has yet to yield any result.
The family told our correspondent that they are hopeful with the way the police authorities have been handling the investigation that Mohammed would be tracked down and apprehended.
Saturday PUNCH spoke with Akeem’s father, Alhaji Bashir Ahmed, who said the family has yet to get over the shock of their son’s death.
He said even though other members of the family had heard about Akeem’s murder immediately after the incident, they were initially afraid of telling him.
“Akeem got married not long ago and had a child. Unfortunately, his wife is pregnant with the second child now who would never know his or her father,” Ahmed said.
According to him, Akeem should not have even taken to operating a tricycle in the first place considering the kind of training he got.
 |
| Ahmed, Akeem's Father |
He said, “Akeem’s mother died when he was very young and I decided that whatever level of education he wanted to reach, I would sponsor him.
“He was such a hardworking young man, the only thing that pitched me against him was that he was not interested in education. I cannot even imagine that he was in Lagos working as a tricycle rider, with all the trainings he had.”
The heartbroken man, who is based in Abuja, said he had thought his son was working in Ibadan where his wife and child are living, but did not know that he was operating a tricycle in Lagos.
Ahmed brought out a number of certificates that Akeem showed that Akeem was at the Maritime University in Ghana, Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, Lagos and the Merchant Navy where he got paramilitary training.
He told Saturday PUNCH, “I put Akeem through these trainings to ensure that he went further in his education but he did not seem to be interested.
“I decided to enrol him for the training so that at least he could get a marine job.”
Akeem was shot in the chest at a point blank range as he intervened in an argument between Mohammed and a motorist said to have driven against traffic at Akowonjo.
“How could he be killed in such a senseless way?” Ahmed said. “To make it even more painful, he was killed on a day he was fasting. It has always been a tradition in our family to fast every Tuesday and Thursday.”
When our correspondent visited the family house at Yaba, the deceased’s grandmother sat in the front of the house, oblivious of the tragedy that had befallen the family.
The family had kept her in the dark about her grandson’s murder because they did not know how she would take it.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that a report on the case had been sent to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.
However, residents of Akowonjo where Akeem was shot said Mohammed was an aggressive officer well-known in the area for bullying motorists, tricyclists and okada riders, whom he threatened to shoot anytime they challenged him.
An officer familiar with the case said when a team went to the crime scene, residents who knew him said Mohammed was known as officer “I-will-shoot-you” as a result of his usual way of threatening people.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Pls, do not spam this blog