Juliana Francis
A Sound Engineer, 28, identified as Mr. David Sunday, aka Dave, has allegedly been beaten and burnt to death by commercial cyclists along the Admiralty Way area of Lekki, Lagos State on Thursday.
A Twitter user, DR. PENKING™ 🇦🇺🇳🇬@drpenking, took to his handle to explain that Dave was on his way to an event at Admiralty when he met his death in the hands of some cyclists.
He was said to have been killed during a squabble with a cyclist over an N100 fare. He was attacked alongside his friends, Philip, a keyboardist, and Frank, a saxophonist.
He was attacked along with his friend, a keyboardist identified as Philip. While Dave was beaten and burnt to death, Philip and another friend called, Frank, a saxophonist, who attempted to come to the rescue of Dave and Philip, were attacked and are now presently fighting to stay alive in an undisclosed hospital.
@drpenking tweeted: “Dave was a Sound Engineer in Lagos. He was on his way to an event at Admiralty using the same bike with the keyboardist Philip. They had an argument with the bike man who was an Aboki man over N100 which resulted in a fight. The other Hausa men around the area doubled up and beat the two men using sticks, stones, and whatever they could lay their hands on. They videos-recorded the whole act. In the video, they were heard boasting. ‘We be Hausa men.’ They beat Dave to death, but they didn’t stop there. They poured fuel on him and set his body ablaze, burning him beyond recognition. The saxophonist, Frank, went to the scene to try to access the situation and possibly separate them but he was beaten into a coma and is currently fighting for his life alongside Philip. This didn’t happen in Kaduna, Sokoto, or Taraba. This happened in Lagos State the heart of Yorubaland.”
Incidentally, that same Thursday was the day Deborah Samuel, a 200 Level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was flogged, killed, and burnt over alleged blasphemy.
The murder of Deborah caused outrage among Nigerians and international communities. The police would later arrest two men in connection with the murder of the undergraduate.
On Saturday, youths in Sokoto State took to the streets, burning and destroying property, asking that the two men arrested over the murder of Deborah were released immediately.
@drpenking further stated: “A few days ago someone raised concerns about the high influx of Hausa men into Lagos state and questioned their motive and sponsors. Some people scorned him as if he was saying nonsense. We are beginning to see the result. These men are already feeling like they own Lagos too. They felt they own Lagos because if they even had the slightest fear that ‘this is someone else’s land’ they wouldn’t have committed that dastardly act. We haven’t even finished mourning the gruesome murder of Deborah in Sokoto and they took it to our very doorstep to show us that Alaye you can’t do anything. How long will this continue? Is it a crime to be a Nigerian? What is the value of Nigerian citizenship and passport?”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin, while confirming the incident, said that it happened on Thursday. He also revealed that four people have been arrested in connection with the murder of Dave and attack on his two friends. There is also a manhunt for others that participated in the gruesome attack.
His words: “One David Sunday, 28 years old, was killed and set ablaze. The police went there and four people were arrested. There is a fifth person, who is on the run, but a manhunt is on to get him arrested. The investigation is ongoing, and the case will soon be transferred to the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba.”
Hundeyin stated that police investigators are using some of the recorded videos of the incident to aid their investigation. He also added that the four men were arrested because policemen from the Moroko Police Station swiftly raced to the scene on a fateful day.
