On the evening of July 31, some assailants brutally murdered Bolakale Yusuff, a Lagos-based commercial tricyclist, in the Mushin area of Lagos.

Yusuff had bidden Quadri, his elder brother, goodnight after hearing news of an attack in their neighbourhood. And he left for his apartment in Agoro.

Shortly after, Quadri was informed that Yusuff had been attacked; he hurried to the spot only to find his brother lying on the ground motionless.

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Who killed the 30-year-old father of one and why? Quadri learned that it was ‘Kesari Boys’, a criminal group with a notorious history of deadly attacks in Mushin.

HOW YUSUFF WAS KILLED

The killers numbered at least five. In their hands were lethal weapons, some of which were legally permissible to be found with state security personnel.

They had a loaded rifle and cutlasses to freely operate and intimidate the public. All of these weapons were unleashed on Yusuff. They shot him and used the cutlasses to inflict deep cuts on his entire body.

Bolakale Yusuff.

With their phones, the killers filmed the act and circulated it around. In one of the videos seen by EQ, Yusuff was rolling on the floor while his killers used the cutlasses on his head, back, legs, hands and other parts of his body.

Blood gushed out of his body through those multiple cuts. He succumbed to death before his brother could take him to the hospital.

His killers were speaking unintelligibly in the videos. The videos and images of the victim look too gory to be uploaded.

“Let me video him,” one of the assailants said while mentioning Bola repeatedly. “Bola! Bola!”

Others were also heard speaking in the video. “You won’t dare doing that again. Use the machete on him! You can’t escape. I have promised that I would be the one to deal with you. I am filming it,” the voices in the video said.

EQ learned that the deceased used to be friends with his attackers until he severed ties with them because he had become uncomfortable with their lifestyle.

“They used to be friends with my brother,” Quadri told EQ.

“My brother had a Keke NAPEP that he was using for commercial transport. At some point, he cut ties with them because he could not abide by their lifestyle. He encouraged them to embrace a decent life and earn honest living.

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“These guys are criminals. They could go to any street to attack people and loot shops. That’s how they operate. My brother disassociated himself from them because of their bad ways. For this, they said he was being proud.”

Quadri said he learnt the killers were attacking a location in the area on the day, so he warned his brother to go straight home and not get involved in any trouble.

“Less than 30 minutes after, I was told he had been shot. I rushed there and found him on the ground. I picked him and drove to the hospital. He died before getting to the hospital,” he said.

“While picking him, I saw one guy holding a rifle. The gunman is called Olori Esho. I was told he is the leader of the group. He shot my brother before his group members macheted him.”

‘SEVEN RIFLES, NINE PASSPORTS’ RECOVERED

A criminal complaint has been filed at the Area D Police Command and Ogambaji.

Yusuff’s brother told EQ that the incident was reported to the police on August 1 and the police said they were investigating it. But the family are unhappy with the pace of work.

“He was killed around 11:30 pm and we filed a police report the following day. The police have been working on it. But no one has been arrested or declared wanted although we provided crucial information to that effect,” Quadri said.

Weapons recovered from Olori Esho’s apartment

Olori Esho seems to be more than what people know him for. In Olori Esho’s apartment, the police’s discovery when they searched his apartment while he was at large is a pointer to a grand criminal network.

According to Quadri, the police found seven rifles, 3 walkie-talkies, nine passports, two pistols and of ammunition.

“The weapons were recovered in Olori Esho’s abode that night. Imagine a civilian holding all these in his possession and the police are yet to be declared wanted. We don’t understand why the police are handling the matter this way,” Quadri said.

The Area D Police Command’s phone number indicated it was switched off when EQ dialled it on Sunday. A text message sent to the number had not been responded to as of press time.

ARE THESE THE KILLERS?

The suspects are on the run after they discovered the police was on their trail. Quadri said that he heard from acquaintances that Olori Esho had been boasting around he was beyond police arrest.

Some of the alleged killers are one Egbere, Ishola Marindoti, Ayinde Okikiola, Ope Mopol and group leader Olori Esho, according to a source whose name is withheld.

The trio of Marindoti, Mopol and Okikiola declined requests for comments. After EQ ended a call with Okikiola, he rang back and branded the reporter “419” (street lingo for fraudster), asking if the reporter needed some financial help from him.

Although Egbere told EQ on the phone that he was not one of Yusuff’s killers, his responses to the questions posed to him showed that he had some vital things to say about the attack. The victim’s brother said he was one of the killers.

“It was a clash between two groups. One from Idi-Araba and another from Mushin,” Egbere said. “Idi-Araba boys, including Bola, were fighting Mushin boys. Was that Bola’s first time of matcheting people? Bola also used to attack people now.

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“Why are they accusing me of killing him? I learned he attacked Mushin boys and they killed him. One Sodiq, known as Inspector, is his second-in-command and always instigates Bola to attack people.

“Normally, we used to be together before. He was my leader at Idi-Araba and I later left their place for Mushin. We became opponents when I relocated to Mushin and attacked each other many times. But some people had resolved our issues for us and I made peace with him. We had not had any reason to attack each other since then.”

Contrary to some reports, the victim’s brother and Egbere separately told EQ that the incident was unconnected to cult violence, saying the attackers were Mushin and Idi-Araba boys.

The family keeps their hope alive that the police would thoroughly investigate and bring the killers to book. Headfort Foundation, a non-profit promoting access to justice in Nigeria, has lent its voice to calls for justice for Yusuff.
The post How ‘Kesari Boys’ Murdered Lagos Keke NAPEP Rider Bola Yusuff — Then Filmed It appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.