Cultist Kills The Wrong Man in a Case of Mistaken Identity

Cultists have shot dead a 20-year-old student, Sharafadeen Ajao, at Oworonshoki, Lagos, in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity.

According to a Punch report, Ajao only just graduated from secondary school last year and planned to sit for this the May/June West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

The deceased, also an apprentice tailor, was however killed by two masked gunmen who struck on a motorcycle around 8.30pm on Monday, 9th of February.

He was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he was declared dead.


A resident who witnessed the shooting, Mr. Akin Shehu, told Punch that Ajao was just a victim.


“I was also relaxing in front of my shop on that evening when the men rode by. When I heard the gunshots, I thought it was the sound of a firecracker,” Shehu said.


“Within two minutes, they had left, and we rushed to the shop and met Sharafadeen in a pool of blood. He was a devout muslim, and had just returned from the 8pm prayer when the assailants shot him.

Mr Shehu believes that the killers had targeted a different person whom he identified as Segun, an active ‘cultist and political thug’.
The deceased elder brother, Mr. Abdulrazak Ajao, also told Punch that the late student could not have been a cultist.


“He was learning fashion designing so that he would not be bored. His main focus was to sit for the WASSCE in May. His death is a shock to the whole family.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the killing, adding that the deceased has been buried according to Islamic rites.

Nwosu added that the police are investigating the matter in order to apprehend the attackers.

I raped 7-year old girl because my wife bewitched me-Clearing Agent

A clearing and forwarding agent has been arrested by the police for allegedly defiling a seven-year-old girl, Deborah in Afromedia area of Okokomaiko, Lagos.

According to Crime Watch,The suspect, Uchenna aged 29, who is be­ing detained at the Okoko police station, has blamed his wife for his woes. Uchenna and the victim’s parents live in the same house on Surulere Street, Afromedia.Uchenna, who hails from Abia State said:

If my wife has not kept the little girl under my care, the devil would not have pushed me to commit the dastardly act.

“My name is Uchenna, I am from Abia State, I am a clearing agent at Apapa Wharf. I woke up one morning, as I was about going to work, that was on January 28, 2015. My wife came in with the mother of the girl, the woman was telling my wife to help her look after the girl that she was going out. I told my wife that this is January, I don’t want trouble. I told her to send the girl back before I return from work. 

When I returned, I still met my wife and the child. I asked her why she has not returned the girl to her parents? She said her mother was not yet back. After two days, I still saw the baby with my wife around 7pm, I sent my wife to buy something to cook and the little girl followed her, I thought that both would come back together, but only the child returned. I asked her who was pursuing her, because she ran into my room house and locked the door. I asked Deborah why she locked the door.

It was at that time I saw a woman pursuing her. I came out angrily and asked the woman what happened and she said Deborah stole her candies. I told her to come back and to inform my wife who brought her to my house. In the evening, my wife was preparing food outside, the child entered my room again. I asked my wife why she was still sending the child inside our house, my wife said she sent her to bring pep­per and salt.

My wife was cooking outside, and I was watching television when the girl climbed me again and said she wanted to take her bath, I told her to call my wife, who refused to come. She came back again and climbed me. I started thinking about what was happening; it was as if somebody sent her after me. As she was on top of my body, I begged Deborah to climb down, but before I knew what was happening, I had started touching her.

“My wife was cooking outside, but when she entered the house, she told me that something really happened in this house, I confessed to her that something happened, but it was the devil that pushed me.

“I am suspecting that my wife bewitched me. How did she know that something transpired between me and the little girl?” Uchenna said.

The victim’s father Idris (other names withheld) told Crime Watch Today,

“My daughter was brutally defiled, according to the doctor’s report.

“My wife only begged Uchenna’s wife to assist her look after the kid. When my daughter returned home, she started com­plaining of abdominal pains. I went to a pharmacy store to buy drugs for her. After taking the drugs, the pains persisted.

“When Uchenna’s wife came and saw Deborah crying she became jittery and started telling my wife that something strange happened to my daughter when she left her under her husband’s care. So, it was then that I asked Deborah what happened and she told me that she was defiled by Uchenna. I was angry and we went for him, but he had fled. We traced him to Tin Can Island where he was arrested and handed over to the Okoko police station,”

Is there ever a good reason to kill? A new book by Chris Rhyss Edwards aims to answer that question

George Zimmerman smiles after a not guilty verdict was handed down in his trial at the Seminole County Courthouse. Picture: TV Pool Source: Supplied

GEORGE Zimmerman was raised in a typical middle-class home and worked as an insurance fraud investigator.

Living in the confines of a gated community of 260 townhouses in Florida’s port city of Sanford, no one would have suspected he would be capable of murder.

Yet, one a rainy night in February 2012, police were dispatched to a confronting scene.

Trayvon Martin lay dead, face down on a patch of rain-and-blood-soaked grass as Zimmerman stood near the corpse.

The 17-year-old had been shot by a Kel-Tec pistol at point blank range and a single bullet ripped through his left lung before lodging in his heart.

Zimmerman made a kerbside confession to the attending officer.

He took responsibility for the slaying, but claimed he did so in self defence.

This is just one of the gruesome tales former soldier Chris Rhyss Edwards heard after spending five years researching and interviewing more than 250 people who have killed.

Former soldier Chris Rhyss Edwards. Source: Supplied

Chris Rhyss Edwards has interviewed over 250 killersSource: Supplied

Why would someone chat to over 250 killers?

Chris Rhyss Edwards was a soldier, institutionalised to accept men and women die during times of war.

However, as a peace-loving man, Edwards struggled to accept how 500,000 humans could die every year from acts of intentional violence, infanticide, gang violence and state executions.

In order to try to understand the instinct to kill, Edwards went in search of answers by speaking with soldiers, euthanasia doctors, cannibals and gangsters who had taken a life.

“The common denominator in the majority of people who have killed is that they all had their reasons,” he told news.com.au.

“For some people it was killing to protect family, for others it was about honour and then there were the murders committed out of pure hatred.”

The 43-year-old explained he rarely felt intimidated when talking with the killers.

“Most of these people were just like you and me, the only difference is they have done an extraordinary thing,” he said.

“Some now regret their actions, but many did not.”

Edwards said the project started out pretty informally, but stared to gain momentum in 2010 when he took to Twitter with a direct question.

“I think I asked something along the lines ‘do we ever have a good reason to kill’ and I was flooded with responses,” he said.

“People started sending me messages about different forms of culturally or contextually accepted killing in other countries.

“I was truly astounded at what I was learning,” he said.

How does it feel to kill someone?

By using his social media contacts, Edwards was able to interview one of America’s most prolific killers, Charles Thomas O’Reilly.

Responsible for taking over 140 lives, you could be excused for thinking he was one of the world’s most infamous serial killers.

However, his kills are deemed legal in the eye of the law because they were planned executions taking place while he was warden in command of one of America’s most notorious jails.

“In the US, O’Reilly has become something of a pin-up boy for the millions of Americans who support capital punishment, even as global support for the death penalty wanes,” he said.

After speaking with the warden, Edwards discovered he didn’t regret a single death because he viewed killing as part of his job.

“You have the capacity to abduct, rape and murder a seven-year-old little girl ... I have no problem fulfilling my responsibilities,” the warden is quoted saying.

The death chamber was a common sight for O’Reilly. Picture: Sue Ogrocki Source: AP

One of the more chilling interviews came when Edwards spoke at length with a former gang member in the US who had served time for executing a competing gang member to earn his stripes.

“He was young and had grown up in a really rough part of LA and had little option to survive than to choose a gang and have their protection,” he said.

After hearing how rough the gangster’s childhood was, Edwards was able to understand his actions were purely out of desperation.

“Gang members operate and make decisions under a different set of rules that are, for the most part, based on sheer survival,” he said.

“If they were seen to simply disrespect their gang by dating the wrong people, wearing the wrong colours, backing down in a fight or heaven forbid, taking the stand in court, they could be killed.

“His gang encouraged vicious behaviours in retaliation and revenge as a way to increase their reputation and to instil fear in others.”

Edwards now understands gangsters actions are mostly out of desperation. Source: AP

Not everyone who kills is bad

In addition to those who have killed another human, Edwards looked at those who take their own lives.

“I had a fascinating conversation with Kevin Hines, who is one of a handful of people who have survived a suicide attempt off the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said.

“He suffers from mental illness and he jumped as a result of being unmedicated.

“He said as his hands came off the railing he decided he wanted to live so he flipped his body so his feet would hit the water first to break his fall, and though he broke his back, he survived.”

Another tale that sticks out to Edwards is that of a woman who sustained physical, mental and sexual violence for over a decade at the hands of her husband.

“One night he was especially violent and was beating her around the kitchen,” he said.

“She picked up a knife and swung at him, hitting him in the neck and he bled out before the ambulance arrived.

“Mothers amaze me with what they put up with in relationships and the lengths they will go to protect their families.”

Edwards was amazed with what some mothers will put up with to protect their family. Picture: Mario Tama Source: Getty Images

After talking with over 250 killers, Edwards discovered that most were far from bad people,

“Child soldiers, gang members from rough upbringings, criminals and wives who killed their husbands because of sustained domestic violence, all did what they had to survive,” he said.

As for himself, the former soldier said his five year journey had been an eye opening experience.

“I didn’t realise what an isolated view of the world I had and what people are forced to do every single day on this planet simply to survive,” he said.

“They say you only know a man when you walk a mile in his shoes.

I won’t Islamise Nigeria if elected – Buhari

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has countered the claims that he would Islamise Nigeria if elected.

A statement issued on Wednesday quoted Buhari as saying during a meeting with Catholic bishops at the Pope John Paul Centre in Abuja that he won’t Islamise Nigeria contrary to the insinuations in the country.

Buhari said he would always put Nigeria first if elected into office, adding that when he ruled Nigeria between December 1983 and August 1985, he did not impose Islam on any citizen.
He said the Peoples Democratic Party had succeeded in misrepresenting him to the Christian community because they could not sell their candidate.

He said, “I would like to solemnly declare that in spite of what our detractors say, I am not a religious fanatic of any sort and I have never been. In all my life, I have never supported extremism of any kind, and nowhere in my record of service to this nation can this false toga political opponents have tried so hard to put on me, be substantiated. Indeed, it is very unfortunate and I feel extremely sad that I have to give this type of assurance.

“My background is in the army, and there is no doubt that the military is the most integrated pan-Nigerian institution. And even today, the military is one of the institutions that represents the pride of our nation’s possibilities in unity.
“Compatriots from every corner of this country come together, work and live together, entrust their lives to each other and integrate their families. It is a military where many of my dearest friends from all faith and parts of the country, lost their lives defending the unity of our nation. That was the military I served in, and in that military it was impossible to be a bigot.”
He said in governance, competence should always come before religion and that was why as head of state, he appointed 11 Christians as governors out of the 19 states.

He noted that his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was not only a lawyer but a senior pastor.

He said, “For me, the issue of religion is, and should always, be a matter of personal conviction. This personal conviction approach to religion has defined my work and interactions all my life, including my tenure in office as military Head of State.

“The religion of all those I worked with was never a factor in their progress or in what happened to them. All that mattered then, and should still matter today, are competence, integrity and readiness to be fair to all.

“I was recently informed that we had a balanced cabinet with key positions such as Finance, Energy and Defence occupied by Christians. In addition, 11 of the 19 governors I appointed were Christians. My most memorable recollections of subordinate service was under Christian bosses, the finest our country had then, and among the most respected today. Indeed one of the best appraisals I received in the course of my military career was from General T.Y Danjuma”.

Police free power-drunk cop, frame tortured couple

The power-drunk cop who tortured a couple in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State, Dada Ogunsanya, has been freed by the police.However, one of the victims of the torture, Ejeh Smith, is currently being detained in the Ikoyi Police Division.

Punch Metro gathered on Wednesday that the police at the Ikoyi division were mounting pressure on him to admit that he was a criminal.

He was initially arrested by the Lion Building Police Division for allegedly receiving stolen diesel. The Ikoyi division heard about the case after Ejeh had been granted bail, but nevertheless rearrested and brought him before some selected journalists.

The action, it was learnt, was targeted at rubbishing earlier reports indicting Ogunsanya and the then Ikoyi Divisional Police Officer, Aisha Haruna.

Our correspondent had reported in December, 2014 that Ogunsanya, a corporal attached to the Ikoyi division stopped a cab conveying Ejeh and his wife, Grace, home.

The policeman, who was part of a patrol team, was said to have shone his torch on the passengers, who protested that the inner lights of the cab should have sufficed.

Angry Ogunsanya was said to have used his rifle to hit Ejeh in the eye and stepped on Grace’s stomach.

The DPO, Haruna, was alleged to have deleted Grace’s recording of the incident.

The matter was still ongoing, when PUNCH Metro learnt on Wednesday that Ogunsanya had been released, while Ejeh had been detained for another matter.

Ejeh’s wife, Grace, said her husband was arrested for allegedly receiving a stolen keg of diesel.

She said,

“Last week, I returned from work and I saw a 25-litre keg of diesel in the house. My husband said a security man in the next compound wanted to sell it to him. He explained that the security man said he did not have money on him.
“My husband told the man that he would help him sell the fuel, as he had no use of the product.”

It was gathered that the security man had stolen the fuel from his employer, which was later detected through a CCTV camera.

Policemen from the Lion Building division were said to have arrested Smith after the suspect mentioned his name.

Grace said the police in the Lion Building granted bail to her husband, but as Ejeh was going home, policemen from the Ikoyi Division surfaced and said the complainant had demanded that the matter be transferred to the division.

It was gathered that the DPO of Ikoyi division at the time of the torture, Aisha Haruna, is now the DPO of the Lion Building division.

Grace said,

“After we paid N15, 000 for Smith’s bail in the Lion Building division, the police said he should be taken to the Ikoyi Police Division, that the owner of the case wanted it transferred there.

“The lawyer representing the complainant wanted to withdraw the case, but the police said the case should go on.
“The police then asked my husband to accept that he is a criminal, so that they can rubbish whatever we said they did to us. They also invited some journalists to interview him.”

It was gathered that Ogunsanya, who was back at the Ikoyi division, had been insisting on Ejeh’s arraignment in court.

But the Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Kenneth Nwosu, said the police did not frame the couple.

He, however, admitted that Ogunsanya had been released, saying his trial had ended.

He said,

“Dada Ogunsanya’s trial has ended and his rank was reduced from corporal to constable.
“Smith was arrested by his community for receiving stolen goods and was brought to the Ikoyi Police Division for investigations before charging the matter to court.
“Nobody organised a press conference on his arrest. Some journalists heard about his arrest and called me that they would like to interview him and I cannot stop them.”