A cart pusher, named Mudasiru, is currently at large after using a broken bottle to stab his colleague, Umaru, to death during a fight. The fight broke out at the the Sabo, Yaba area of Lagos State last Thursday.
Umaru was reportedly on his way to the police station to report a case of assault against him, when he fell to the ground due to serious injuries he had already sustained.
It was alleged that Mudasiru, who was chasing after him, allegedly pounced on him and stabbed him repeatedly.
An eyewitness, Hassan Abubakar, commented that Mudasiru has since fled the area. He also lamented police arrest of two suspects who knew nothing about the fight.
“On Thursday, January 17, 2019, a fight broke out between two cart pushers named Mudasiru and Umaru. During the fight, Mudasiru stabbed Umaru in the stomach and ran away immediately after realising the gravity of what he had done. Umaru died due to the injuries he sustained from the fight and up till now, no one knows the whereabouts of Mudasiru.” Abubakar said.
“Police officers from the Sabo Police Station, who are investigating the case, came to our area in Sabo, Yaba to arrest Barau and Habeebu, who were innocent of the crime. They arrested them because the suspect, who killed Umaru, is from Jos and Habeebu is a nephew of the deceased, while Barau is the leader of the people from Jos in the area. Because they are from the same village in the North does not make them suspects in the case.”
Also speaking, Seriki (leader) of northerners in the Sabo area of the state, Isoho Bature, said Umaru died because he lost lots of blood as a result of the stab wounds. He noted that it took the intervention of their monarch before the police agreed that Barau and Habeeb should be released.
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“We had to call our king from the North to talk to the police before they agreed that they would release Barau and Habeeb. They are completely innocent of the crime; the murderer is still on the run and nobody knows what caused the fight between the two cart pushers. But Umaru was on his way to the police station to report the fight when he fell to the ground around the Total filling station, so Mudasiru pounced on him and stabbed him repeatedly,” Bature added.
“He (Umaru) fell to the ground because he had lost lots of blood, and that was what killed him. The man who stabbed him usually stays with bad people in the Iwaya area and the corpse of the deceased had been taken to the mortuary.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the incident, adding that the command is on the tail of those culpable in Umaru’s death.
Oti said, “What happened was that someone around a filling station alerted the police that a certain young man, whose name is yet unknown, was discovered lying down there. The person said the man was not breathing properly and immediately the attention of the police was drawn to it; operatives of the command from the Sabo Division, who were mobilised to the scene, took him to the hospital, where he unfortunately gave up the ghost.
“When the doctor on duty inspected the body of the deceased, pieces of broken bottle were recovered from the injuries he sustained. Apparently, he was stabbed to death with a broken bottle. Meanwhile, undercover operatives have been deployed to commence investigation into the case to unravel the person or persons involved in the dastardly act.”