Senator representing Ogun West, Senator Solomon Adeola popularly known as Yayi, has blamed Nigerian Army personnel for the killing of his aide, Adeniyi Sanni.
Yayi made this known in a statement signed by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, in Abuja on Monday.
The Herald earlier reported that Sanni’s lifeless body was found with gunshot wounds dumped at Toyota bus stop in the Oshodi area of Lagos State on Saturday, August 5.
The lawmaker had said that information at his disposal indicated that his slain aide was stopped by security operatives at a checkpoint around the Ojodu-Berger Area of Lagos on his way to his home at Isheri.
“He was asked to provide the documents of the car he was driving, which he did through his wife who sent all the documents to his phone WhatsApp.
“It was gathered that the wife called a while later and the late Mr. Sanni told him they were still checking the vehicle’s papers.
“His apprehensive wife later called on Mr. Sanni’s associates to say he could no longer reach her husband on phone necessitating the mobilisation of a search party.
“She was later called by passersby through the Next of Kin phone number on her husband’s driving licence that the body of Mr. Sanni was dumped around Toyota Bus Stop in Oshodi with gunshot wound,” Yayi’s earlier statement read in part.
On Monday, he confirmed that the “security agents” that killed his aide were soldiers.
“I am of the firm belief, based on available facts at the disposal of the Police, that his aide was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Nsikan Edet, through the mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars.
“Top police sources familiar with the investigation informed me that a similar brutal killing and armed robbery occurred around the same Ojodu-Berger late Thursday night of August 17, 2023, resulting in the killing of another Nigerian whose body was discovered around Iyana-Ipaja after he was taken away by soldiers from the checkpoint.
“Unknown to the soldiers, the occupant of the car they killed and took away his car was the second car in a convoy of two heading towards the same destination.
“The first car passed the soldier’s checkpoint, but the second car was stopped to check his vehicle’s papers,” Yayi said.
He added, “On noticing the absence of the second car after a while, the occupant of the first car (name withheld) placed a call to his colleague in the second car, who informed him that he was being taken to Iyana Ipaja by the soldiers at the checkpoint.
“That was the last he heard from him, and his dead body was later discovered dumped on the road, just like Mr Sanni.”
Yayi charged the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, to direct the fishing out of the killers of his aide for further investigation, prosecution, and justice for the deceased.
The senator said such a pattern of killings and armed robbery had been established against soldiers mounting late-night checkpoints around Ikeja, with similar unreported incidents in recent times around Ikeja.
“To date, the black Toyota Camry of Mr Sanni, his phones, and other valuables are yet to be recovered,” Yayi lamented.