Gangsters killed my joy, I’m now left to feed four kids alone – Husband of woman shot by cult members
MAY 12, 2013
Babatunde Balogun
For 42-year-old Babatunde Balogun, whose wife, Rahimot, 32, was shot dead alongside two brothers in Shitta, Surulere area of Lagos last week Thursday by suspected gangsters, the initial shock of losing his dear wife has worn off.
What Balogun is now left with is fear for the future of his four children, having lost the only helper who always ensured food got to the table when things were bad for him. Balogun sobbed as he explained to our correspondent the kind of wife Rahimot was on Wednesday.
“Anytime I think about the fact that my wife is dead, I feel a tight knot in my stomach and I start sweating. She was like a miracle worker in my house.
“Sometimes when I am not financially buoyant and my business is not doing as good as expected, I go home and give her N500 for feeding and she always understood. She would always find a way to provide for the family.
“I am not a lazy man, I just don’t know how to engage in criminal acts. Rahimot had been there for me and the children since the day my business had a problem.”
Balogun said at about 8.30pm on Thursday, May 2, 2013, he was one street away from Shitta when he suddenly heard the gunshots.
He had no idea who was targeted. His first instinct, like many others in the area, was to duck in a hiding place.
When the shootings stopped, he immediately ran towards his home, since he knew the gunshots came from his street.
“I saw my brother running towards me as I ran home. He was crying. That was when I knew something terrible had happened. I rushed home and saw my wife stretched out in a car, in which they had already put her. She was gasping. Rahimot was shot in the lower abdomen,” Balogun said.
But the traumatised man denied that his wife was pregnant as earlier reported.
A landlord on the street closest to Shitta, Akerele, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that Balogun needed help because his business had not been doing so well lately.
He said, “My mind has not been at rest. I’ve been thinking about the fact that those four children left behind by his wife may likely drop out of school soon.
“There is no way that man can shoulder the load of paying for the education of those children alone. I am close to the family so I know what I am talking about. Rahimot was his mother, wife and confidant.
“If not because government does not really care about people who lose their relations in such gruesome way as this, I don’t see any reason why government should not come to his aid.”
The couple’s first child is in senior year two, while the last child is in Nursery two.
However, more facts begin to emerge in the attack which has set Shitta, Akerele and other surrounding areas of Surulere on edge.
Our correspondent learnt that the brothers who were shot alongside Rahimot – Mufutau and Malik Akewusola – might have been targeted, contrary to opinions that they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Even though no one could confirm if the deceased brothers were cult members, eyewitness accounts indicated they were targeted.
No one was willing to put their names on record for fear that the killers might later come for them.
One of such eyewitnesses told our correspondent that where he hid, he heard the gang engage in an argument as they made to leave the area.
“After the shootings had died down, one of them asked, ‘Why did you have to shoot that woman now? That was reckless.’ Another one answered him that the boy (Mufutau) was using the woman as a shield to escape, which was why he had to kill both of them,” he said.
Mufutau, who was the older of the two brothers, had been reportedly running in the same direction as Rahimot when both of them were gunned down.
Saturday PUNCH, however, learnt that some policemen had been using the opportunity of the tension in the area to extort money from residents.
Some victims told our correspondent that the policemen had been arresting innocent residents arbitrarily and asking them to pay money to bail themselves out.
Muhammed, a Northerner, said, “I was in my shop around 8.30pm on Monday when some policemen came in and arrested me. They told me to pay if I wanted them to let me go. I paid N5,000,” he said.
A resident of Akerele, who said he had witnessed a couple of such arrests, said the policemen would sometimes stop young men walking on the street and begin to search them and confiscate any money found on them.
“Even if you are carrying a weapon and you give them money immediately they stop you, they let you go without searching you. They are doing this to innocent residents when those who carried out the killings are out there. Nobody recognised any of them. That shows that the shooters were from outside this area,” the man, who also pleaded anonymity said.
But the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, said no report had been made about extortion in the area.
She said, “As far as I know, a raid was conducted in the area due to an intelligence report that we got that suggested there were some criminal hideouts there. Some people were taken into custody.
“We also have also arrested two suspects in connection with the shooting. The residents should feel free to come to my office and lodge complaints about any extortion.”
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