Sombreness pervaded Oloto Street in the Oyingbo area of Lagos on Tuesday after suspected robbers shot dead an engineer in his house.
The engineer, Sanmi Ige, was the Facility Manager of BHS International Limited, located around the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island. He was reportedly shot in the head while pleading with the assailants not to steal his laptop.
He was not married.
The robbers laid siege to a storeyed building in the area around 4am wielding guns and cutlasses. They announced their presence at the landlord’s wife’s apartment, waking up her son with cutlass.
They reportedly dispossessed them of phones, money and stole a Plasma television. They proceeded to Ige’s apartment, where they cut the door net to gain entry into his room.
According to Punch, the engineer surrendered his phones and other valuables, but held onto the laptop, resulting in a struggle between him and the assailants.
After they overpowered him and collected the laptop, he was said to have followed them downstairs and was shot by the roadside. Sadly, he bled to death.
During a visit to the residence, there were bloodstains at the scene of the attack. Ige’s room was in shambles, with bloodstains on his bed sheet, with shattered glass of a picture frame on a chair.
Ige’s colleagues and sympatisers thronged the compound as the residents who lost valuables to the robbers recounted their ordeal.
The landlord’s wife, who identified herself only as Mama Muri, said, “They came around 4am. They probably used a master key to open the gate to the compound. They didn’t break it. They woke us up, thoroughly checked our room and collected our phones and money. There was a young boy among them.
“They warned us not to make a noise. They locked us inside and went to Sanmi’s (Ige) room. They collected his three phones and a laptop. With only boxers on, he followed them downstairs, begging them to return the laptop. Suddenly, we heard a gunshot. On getting downstairs, we found him dead in a pool of blood. He was shot in the head. They thought he wanted to recover the laptop by force because he was huge. I am still in shock.”
Her son, Muri, said the robbers carted away his phone and a sum of N4,500.
The landlord, who gave his name only as Babalola, said he was asleep at the balcony during the attack, adding that it was the gunshot that woke him up.
He said, “That was the first time we would experience robbery attack here. Life is the most important thing; he should have let them go with the laptop irrespective of the information on it. I have told the estate agent that brought him here to help us get his family. He was easy-going. When he returned from work, he would park his car and go straight to his apartment. He didn’t associate with people.
“We reported the incident at the Denton Police Station and policemen came to remove his corpse.”
A member of a vigilance group, who gave his name only as Baba Taju, said he sighted the robbers from afar, adding that they were eight in number.
“I heard a gunshot and tried to trace where it came from. They escaped through Coats Street. I think the hoodlums live within the community,” he added.
The Manager, Corporate Affairs BHS, who visited the residence in company with a policeman, lamented Ige’s death, saying it was a big shock to the company.
I just hope Lagos police will do what they are good at and get the killers to face the law.
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