PUNCH.NG: BUS DRIVER KILLED DURING PDP RALLY IN LAGOS

A 39-year-old commercial bus driver, Mr. Adesoji Adeboye, has been killed during a Peoples Democratic Party rally in Lagos.

According to relatives of the deceased, Adeboye was shot in the leg on Monday last week during a local government tour by a PDP governorship aspirant, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, in the Mushin area of the state.

Although police sources told our correspondent that details surrounding Adeboye’s murder were sketchy, relatives of the victim accused the PDP supporters of perpetrating the dastardly act.

However, a source in the PDP told our correspondent that Adeboye was shot by some thugs who invaded the gathering.

An aunt to the deceased, Mrs. Shade Afolabi, told our correspondent on the telephone that Adeboye had a wife and three children.

She said on the day of the incident, Adeboye was called by his boss, Mr. Kunle Oduyale, aka Osha, to go and convey some PDP party members said to be Agbaje’s supporters from the Lagos end of the old toll gate opposite Motorways Plaza at about 6am to a political rally being held by Agbaje in Epe.

She said under instruction from a leader of the federal task force, her nephew was told to convey some supporters of Agbaje to Mushin but he was shot in the process and his corpse was dumped around the old toll gate.

She said, “When he was called, they said the rally would take place in Epe but I don’t know why it was held in Mushin. Later in the evening, his blood-stained bus was spotted at the toll gate and he (Adeboye) laid in a pool of blood beside the bus close to FERMA yard.

“The supporters are claiming that he was shot in Mushin but I don’t understand why someone who was shot in Mushin would be taken to Ketu for treatment where he finally died. They are not being truthful about the incident. It is even unfortunate that no one from the PDP has deemed it fit to visit the family or even his (Adeboye’s) mother.”

In a petition sent to our correspondent, the Executive Director, Centre for Rights and Grassroots Initiative, Mr. Nelson Ekujumi, said there was a deliberate attempt by the perpetrators to cover up the act.

He said the matter was reported at the Ketu Police Division and later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba.

Ekujumi said, “From our findings, it was discovered that Adeboye had a bullet wound on his thigh, we also found out that the bus which Adeboye drove was blood stained and which necessitated the family prevailing on the police at Ketu Division to impound the bus in question.

“We also suspected that Adeboye might have been shot at the PDP rally in Epe, but was kept in the bus to die from his injury by those he took to Epe with the sole intention of covering up this crime and thereafter dumped his body close to the Lagos end of the old toll gate to make it look like he had an accident at the spot where he was found.”

However, the Jimi Agbaje Organisation denied employing the deceased driver. The organisation in a statement said none of the vehicles
in Agbaje’s entourage was a commercial bus. The organisation described the allegations against Agbaje as baseless, saying the organisation could not be held responsible for what happens among motley groups at its rallies.

The statement read in part, “Not only are these insinuations far-fetched, they are totally false, mischievous, absurd and unwarranted. They smack of a deliberate and desperate attempt to soil the good image of our organisation, our supporters and our principal.

“In fact, the Jimi Agbaje organisation never hired the services of commercial transporters for its tours, spanning the 20 local government areas of Lagos State.

“Even if the dead driver cannot now corroborate this fact, his ‘master’ remains a living witness.”

When contacted on the telephone, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said, “According to the friends of the deceased, there was a meeting in Mushin and he was shot. He gave up the ghost on their way home. The friends are assisting the police with the investigation.”